The Garden, a PJ Harvey Discussion Site

I really like that live version of “Joy” with the added guitar line. Extremely hooky! Gets stuck in my head a lot whenever I think of it. Hopefully that guitar part is on the demo. Seems weird that she would’ve written such a bold part for the song only for the live set, after it had been recorded & released.

I received my copies of ROM+4Track today. Both look great, and Rid of Me sounds great so far. The signed prints are a nice plus, though the Rid of Me one is pretty low quality compared to the actual record sleeve - looks like a different image source, and almost has a sepia tone.

The reissues of TBYML and DHALP have been uploaded onto her store once again.

BobSimms wrote:I really like that live version of “Joy” with the added guitar line. Extremely hooky! Gets stuck in my head a lot whenever I think of it. Hopefully that guitar part is on the demo. Seems weird that she would’ve written such a bold part for the song only for the live set, after it had been recorded & released.

I thought the same; I wasn't aware of it until relatively recently. Given that the live vocal is virtually the same as the recording, it's as though the band is playing a completely different song which only accidentally fits it.

^ I've always thought the studio tracks of ITD were nowhere near as good as their live versions on tour. Joy is a good example.


Spend some time listening to other ITD tour tracks.


More (melodic) rock and less industrial noise.

The B-sides from this era are particularly great


She only did this beautiful slowed down version (and closed the show with it) on a handful of non-UK dates in late 1998.

error wrote:I haven't bought the Rid Of Me and 4-Track Demos vinyl reissues yet (the prices are ridiculous over here, about €30 each!).

Question: How do the downloads compare to the original cd-masters?

I've just received my copy of Rid of Me in the mail and downloaded the WAV files (important - the Sound of Vinyl website doesn't work with uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger, had to turn them off in order to register - and yes, you have to register ). Not listened yet but threw them into Audacity to compare with the original CD and this time there's no difference in volume, unlike Dry. Here's the title track:



And yes, the digital version is 16bit/44.1 KHz WAV, you can't choose FLAC or MP3.

Thanks for the info!

TheNightingale wrote:


And yes, the digital version is 16bit/44.1 KHz WAV, you can't choose FLAC or MP3.

I do not look forward to this download experience. That aside, which of those waveforms are the original CD and which are the new downloads? Because the vinyl (both 1993 and 2020) and the old digital files (CD, streaming platforms like Apple Music, etc.) use different stereo mixes from each other. That’s right, not just different mastering, but different STEREO MIXES. I was really perplexed by this when I listened to someone’s samples on the Steve Hoffman forum. On a lot of the remastered Rid Of Me tracks—both the new vinyl rips and the WAV download—the vocals and most of the drums are panned left, while Polly’s guitar is panned to the right. A very jarring listen for me.

My thinking is that they had to do that to prevent skipping? It’s an “overlong” album in the sense that there’s more recorded material than would normally safely fit on a single disc without sacrificing sound quality, so maybe it has something to do with that? Can’t think of any other reason.

If nothing else, I’ll enjoy getting a better ear for the guitar parts, as they’re easier to make out when there’s more stereo separation between them and the bass guitar or the vocal, as opposed to them basically sitting atop each other in the mix I’m familiar with.

BobSimms wrote:That aside, which of those waveforms are the original CD and which are the new downloads?

The top one is a rip of the 1993 CD, the bottom one is the download from the Sound of Vinyl.

Just listened to the To Bring You My Love Demos… and I love them! The Dancer is amazing!

She really got her money's worth out of that drum machine!

Listening to the TBYML demos and surprised with a couple of things, such as how the drum machine in 'Meet ze Monsta' resembles de arrangement of the Glastonbury 1995 show, just like the 'Water' arrangement from that tour rescued the guitar solo from her original demo; also how sparse 'Long Snake Moan' and 'Working for the Man' sound; the "folklore" air of 'The Dancer', closer to how she performed it in 2004 and to something like 'The Pocket Knife'. also I thought that 'I Think I'm a Mother' was going to be one of those that was used in full demo form in the album, and it's different. for the rest, amazing examples of how the songs were so well-thought and arranged before the definitive versions.

The prices for those vinyl reissues in my country are ridiculous. They dare to ask almost €30 for a simple reissue. I had planned to buy the whole series, but decided to skip them all (except Dry, which was much cheaper). UMC/Island are still a bunch of awful money grabbers.

Sadly the ITD listing has been removed from the fnac site, although it was the only listing out there I think...? it had a release of 23/10/20, but with DHALP being pushed back to October that was always optimistic!

hopefully it’ll be back on the schedules for November maybe...