The Garden, a PJ Harvey Discussion Site

What a great voice (and a very strange one) on that open track ! Love that.

listening to the broadcast now, can barely understand a word but i managed to listen to a part of prayer at the gate.


can't wait to listen to seem an i

Christ almighty.

The first half of the record is absolutely stunning. I understand the single choices now, but they are the least interesting from the bunch so far, imho.

Very interesting listening to Polly talking about the THSDP era, essentially saying that she never felt sure she was doing her best work right from the start when she was writing it until the very end of the tour.

Well, this has certainly whetted my appetite for the album; can’t wait to listen to the whole thing properly. “Prayer at the Gate”, “The Nether-edge”, and “Seem an I” were immediate stand outs, but John’s bizarre falsetto on “Autumn Term” deserves a mention, too, lol

Actually some parts reminded me of the two last Aldous Harding albums which John produced.

Great interview as well, Polly sounded so happy and excited, and it was great to hear her talk so candidly about her process and how unfulfilled she felt during the Hope Six era. The way she described the new record — its “home-made” quality, how it lifts her spirit when she listens to it etc. — reminds me a bit of White Chalk

I think this album will need a very close attention with headphones because of the experimental way it was produced.
I hear many strange sounds in the background. I'm pretty sure that it will require many listenings in order to grasp these many subtleties.

John pulling a white voice was really something ahahahah, and seem an i was up to the hipe, good job PJ. by the way, couldn't understand who Cecil and Cohan are, the manly French voice in my left ear was quite distracting .

Cecil Bartlett and Rob Kirwan

Pluton wrote:I think this album will need a very close attention with headphones because of the experimental way it was produced.
I hear many strange sounds in the background. I'm pretty sure that it will require many listenings in order to grasp these many subtleties.

Yes, I only listened on crappy laptop speakers and obviously it was just a low-quality radio/podcast stream but I'm sure the album will open up nicely on good headphones or big speakers. Hopefully they will do a good job with the vinyl pressing!

Sebastiano Boina wrote:by the way, couldn't understand who Cecil and Cohan are, the manly French voice in my left ear was quite distracting .

Cecil is the nickname/pseudonym of Adam Bartlett, a sound engineer who also worked on Hope Six and is Flood’s frequent collaborator.

Thank you both.

Random thoughts:
Polly has succeeded in not repeating herself in a big way!
Fabulous interview. "do you have the sound of a worried mole?" Polly sounds so energised.
I think one of those strange sounds in the background may be the noise of a third Mercury prize approaching.
I feel sorry for music journalists trying to describe the sound! ".. imagine 70's prog folk with added sheep noises fed back though a synthesiser and then ..." (Kind of explains the tweet from Pete Paphides (who is a music journalist) that just says "My god, the new PJ Harvey album")
The recording process: so weird and so different from the Steve Albini days of just sounding like a band in a room.
Polly's voice sounds great, particularly on the "Prayer at the Gate". I hope she opens and closes the shows with that (like in Orlam the book)
"femboys in the forest find figs of foul freedom" is the new "lick my legs"
I can't wait for part 2.

This first half was fantastic, i'm really excited ! The singles are probably the most accessible/obvious ones on the album, not as original and crooked as what i've heard tonight.
She has managed to find a new sound again, and the interview was great, can't wait to enjoy the second part tomorrow!

I agree that she definitely not repeated herself once again, but I think I'll need more repeated listenings to get into the new songs. The tracks I instantly liked are I Inside the Old Year Dying, Seem an I and The Nether-Edge. Autumn Term is cute. The others, I don't know. Prayer at the Gate has an incredibly good ending, but the main melody and the doo-doo-doo part... I'm still not convinced. Lwonesome Tonight is not bad, but I guess I expected something different since it's one of my favourite poems from Orlam. It's a very strange feeling, knowing the lyrics even before listening to her songs for the first time. For the next album I'd rather not, in order to avoid dangerous expectations of any sort.
I still believe the first single is the strongest song so far, I hope the next batch will prove me wrong.

Donwload the Radio France Podcast here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cu47K9 ... sp=sharing

jesuspolly wrote:Donwload the Radio France Podcast here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cu47K9 ... sp=sharing

Thank you!!