Full back catalogue REISSUES + demos (THSDP 22/03/11)

[bruise]

https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/pj- ... ouse-point

"PJ Harvey's Lost Album: John Parish Discusses 1996 Gem 'Dance Hall At Louse Point'"

I: I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that track should have been on there. Will those b-sides be included with the reissue package?

JP: Not the initial reissue package, because it’s literally the album plus demos of the album. I might be wrong, but I think there might be some kind of b-sides and rarities thing to come out as another package at some point down the line.

[BobSimms]

THANK GOD

[Cuauhtemoc]

Best thing I've heard all day.

[TheNightingale]

Great news!

But given the recent worldwide delays in vinyl record manufacturing, it seems that the album+demos reissue series will be spread out over more than the 10 months we initially assumed (at least my wallet's happy, I guess).

[Cuauhtemoc]

https://twitter.com/PJHarveyUK/status/1 ... 40738?s=20

Is This Desire? vinyl reissue and Demos album announcement coming soon.

[GoddamnEuropeans]

Thank you to our savior John Parish for sharing SOME information on the state of things since it's radio silence for the past couple of months.

Interesting to hear that Polly has delegated everything with the reissue campaign, hopefully because she's focusing on her next album?

[Yes_No_Maybe_So]

Interesting to learn from the JP interview that, 'Is That All There Is' was a one-take, never previously rehearsed track. And that became the released version!

[bruise]

The new cover:

[BobSimms]

Is that a new video for one of the ITD demos? It’s not available in my territory yet, if so.

[bruise]

Yes, it's the Angelene demo (should be available by now)

Lots of news today!! I'm in heaven



The Is This Desire? vinyl reissue and Is This Desire? – Demos album will be released on 29th January.

http://pjharvey.net/is-this-desire-viny ... mos-album/

[TheNightingale]

I’m very happy to be releasing the Is This Desire? demos for the first time.

When I am writing an album the demos of the songs capture the atmosphere of the moment in a way that can never be replicated.

I made this collage for Nick during the time I was writing this album and in some ways the words of the collage went on to inform the song, Is This Desire?, and indeed the whole album.

The collage is currently on display in the Nick Cave, 'Stranger Than Kindness' exhibition at The Black Diamond in Copenhagen.

[an tha]

KORY GROW
DECEMBER 3, 2020 3:09PM EST


“Angelene,” a somber monologue sung from the perspective of the “prettiest mess you’ve ever seen,” may be the most inauspicious opening track in PJ Harvey’s catalogue. She plucks an awkward chord on her guitar and assumes her character, describing the life of a prostitute with penchants for Salinger and pining for a man she’s never met, 2,000 miles away. It’s part elegy and part soliloquy, and the way she gilds the tune’s stuttering rhythms with church organ and hopscotching piano makes it hypnotic — a perfect introduction to the relative downtempo nature of her fourth LP, 1998’s Is This Desire?

Now, more than two decades later, Harvey has released a demo for the song as part of her ongoing reissue series, and it shows a new side to the track. It’s more personal, more intimate, more disturbing, more plaintive. Gone are the organ and piano parts, as well as the sloppy intro chord (did she add that to play up the “prettiest mess” line?). Instead, she plays along to a gentle drum machine line, similar to the trip-hop elements that define Is This Desire? The sparse arrangement makes her character sound more vulnerable throughout, and more desperate in the chorus as she declares with unparalleled conviction that her savior lives on some far away coast — if only she could find him. When the rhythm falls away for her to sing, “Dear God, life ain’t kind,” it’s as if the rug was ripped from beneath her leaving her with just that hard-earned confession, and when she howls, “It seems so far away,” later, it’s as if she’s screaming into an abyss of disappointment.

Is This Desire? never gets quite the same shine as Harvey’s other Nineties albums, probably because it’s sandwiched in her discography between her devastating mainstream breakthrough, To Bring You My Love, and the brilliant Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. She filled both of those LPs with brutal honesty and simmering, sometimes extraverted rock arrangements, where Is this Desire? was quieter and more subtle. (The way she whispers “The Wind” on Desire sounds like EVPs from another realm.) But hearing this raw version of “Angelene” suggests that her initial outlook for Is This Desire? was closer in line with Stories From the City, making the rest of the forthcoming Is This Desire? – Demos (out January 29th along with a reissue of the original record) all the more curious. Harvey has always been a private artist, and to see her go full exhibitionist with these albums of demos has been fascinating. Since the electronica-heavy production of Is This Desire? makes it feel like her most cloistered album, this offering will be the most curious in the series.

The only thing that would make it any better would be if she were to dip deeper into the catalogue and include some of her B sides from around the time in the release. “Nina in Ecstasy 2,” which appeared on the flipside of the “Wind” single, is one of the most moving and greatest songs of her career, even if it interpolates Middle of the Road’s “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep.” And what of the 15-second “Angelene (Research Hook)” that backed up the original song’s single and isn’t even on YouTube? Perhaps she’s saving those for some later reissue or perhaps it’s just part of the mystery.


https://youtu.be/3x2kdpwrhcM

[DrDark]

Above is from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... w-1098182/

Thanks to whoever uploaded the demo to youtube. The main link from PJ's official website is still not working here in the US.

I really like the demo track. You can hear the delicate guitar chords very clearly, unlike the released track on the album.

[TheNightingale]

Another promo post about Nick Cave. Weird, is she subtly framing ITD as a break-up record?

Like many musicians I came out of art school and drawing has been an ongoing part of my life. Nick and I made a lot of drawings for each other, and here are two lovely drawings of his currently on display in his ‘Stranger Than Kindness’ exhibition at The Black Diamond, Copenhagen

https://twitter.com/PJHarveyUK/status/1 ... 4511541248

[BobSimms]

Gone are the organ and piano parts, as well as the sloppy intro chord (did she add that to play up the “prettiest mess” line?).

The writer’s talking about the upstroke at the very beginning, and it’s there on the demo, too—it’s the same guitar track on both the demo and studio cuts.