The Garden, a PJ Harvey Discussion Site

"Good Fortune" is out now!

This demo kicks some a**!

The fact that records as "To Bring You My Love" and "Is This Desire?" used so much stuff from the demos (I expected the latter to be more different for some reason) leave me wondering if this collection definitely should have been approached differently. I enjoyed the raw, different versions of 'The Sky Lit Up', 'The Garden' and 'The River', but even 'My Beautiful Leah' and 'Joy' were ideas that she had fully realized at home. If the point is precisely to show that, perfect, and in fact it is interesting to confirm it, but then maybe it wasn't necessary to "release" it, and have collections of the most interesting/different versions of her known repertoire and mix them with unreleased demos from each era instead.

desperateK wrote:maybe it wasn't necessary to "release" it, and have collections of the most interesting/different versions of her known repertoire and mix them with unreleased demos from each era instead.

I can see your point, but I guess the label/PJ decided to follow the same template as the original Dry Demos - the whole album in its demo version and that's that.
I'm actually happy the way it's been handled because I wouldn't like to get just some of the demo tracks because they're the most interesting or different. I would still feel hungry and willing to decide for myself, so to speak. I'm enjoying this completist approach where (almost) no tracks are left out (with the painful exception of Missed and Me-Jane).
But yeah, the whole project needs a grand finale with unreleased material, that would be the icing on the cake.

[quote=
But yeah, the whole project needs a grand finale with unreleased material, that would be the icing on the cake.[/quote]

agreed! She could easily fill 2 or 3 volumes with Bsides alone. Would make a lovely box set

bruise wrote:

desperateK wrote:maybe it wasn't necessary to "release" it, and have collections of the most interesting/different versions of her known repertoire and mix them with unreleased demos from each era instead.

I can see your point, but I guess the label/PJ decided to follow the same template as the original Dry Demos - the whole album in its demo version and that's that.

no, I agree with you and in fact I'm a complestist and an insane archivist as well so I shouldn't complain about having it all I understand that following this template is what gives the collection cohesiveness. I think I was just speaking from a place of slight disappointment after finding out that 'Electric Light', and 'Catherine' are virtually the same as the released versions; 'Joy' is missing percussion and has a different vocal take but it's also the same, and 'No Girl So Sweet' or 'My Beautiful Leah' are like raw mixes of the released versions minus drums and small arrangements. Like I say, that is an *excellent problem* cause it confirms her vision, her skill and her amazing artistry, but from the point of view of a listener who's hoping to hear something alternate that tells a story about the origins of a project, if the origins were so close to the final work I feel it lacks something as a stand-alone collection.

Yay, no jump in the middle of 'no girl so sweet'!!

desperateK wrote:

bruise wrote:

desperateK wrote:maybe it wasn't necessary to "release" it, and have collections of the most interesting/different versions of her known repertoire and mix them with unreleased demos from each era instead.

I can see your point, but I guess the label/PJ decided to follow the same template as the original Dry Demos - the whole album in its demo version and that's that.

no, I agree with you and in fact I'm a complestist and an insane archivist as well so I shouldn't complain about having it all I understand that following this template is what gives the collection cohesiveness. I think I was just speaking from a place of slight disappointment after finding out that 'Electric Light', and 'Catherine' are virtually the same as the released versions; 'Joy' is missing percussion and has a different vocal take but it's also the same, and 'No Girl So Sweet' or 'My Beautiful Leah' are like raw mixes of the released versions minus drums and small arrangements. Like I say, that is an *excellent problem* cause it confirms her vision, her skill and her amazing artistry, but from the point of view of a listener who's hoping to hear something alternate that tells a story about the origins of a project, if the origins were so close to the final work I feel it lacks something as a stand-alone collection.

Yeah, I feel pretty much the same way. I'm very glad all the demos will be out there, even though the demo records might not be as exciting to listen to front-to-back as I had imagined. I guess the original 4-Track Demos had spoiled us a bit, given how different they were to Rid of Me and how they included previously unreleased songs to make the release even more special and interesting. But again, I shouldn't be complaining - I've been enjoying rediscovering TBYML and ITD through the lens of these work-in-progress versions.

I'm also really hoping for a B-sides compilation to cap the whole reissue series off* - so many of her singles are nowhere to be found, and the streaming services seem to lack a huge number of them (e.g. Spotify is missing everything from 1993 to 2001), I'd be awesome to have all of them collected on a single release.

* I'm not holding my breath for any unreleased material but who knows!

So should we be expecting Uh Huh Her at some point this week....?

TheNightingale wrote:I'm also really hoping for a B-sides compilation to cap the whole reissue series off* - so many of her singles are nowhere to be found, and the streaming services seem to lack a huge number of them (e.g. Spotify is missing everything from 1993 to 2001), I'd be awesome to have all of them collected on a single release.

* I'm not holding my breath for any unreleased material but who knows!

Parish hinted at something like that in an interview a month or two back. And since he's the one overseeing this reissue campaign I'm really holding out hope. It's kind of stupid as I literally have everything she's ever released, but the completest in me wants it all cleaned up and in one easily accessible place. B-sides, soundtrack songs, unreleased material. At least give me cleaned up versions of Claudine and Primed and Ticking from the Peel Sessions. Please! It's been almost 30 years!

I agree with that, Cuauhtemoc, but I would add that there are still songs we haven’t heard—like “Clothes” and “He’s Just My Type”—and recordings like Polly’s demo, at least I think it’s a demo, of “Long Time Coming”. I’d love to hear that with her playing everything. The one released as a B-side was done live in studio at the BBC with her TBYML band playing, and her just doing vocals.

I don’t think Parish is necessarily overseeing the series or deciding what gets released. I think Polly just delegated certain tasks to people, like Maria overseeing the artwork for the demos albums, Parish doing interviews, etc. Parish’s role is as the chief consultant for the remastering of most of the albums and their demos—just overseeing the mastering engineering process. (He didn’t do it for Dry and its demos, however—Head did—and Albini did it for Rid Of Me; I’m guessing Parish’ll do it for Stories and UHH, however, even though he had nothing to do with those albums, in the same way he did for 4TD, which he also originally had nothing to do with).

My point is it’s ultimately Polly deciding what gets released, but yes I imagine John as a close working partner and friend would likely have some influence. Maybe.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that he was deciding what's getting released. I meant that since he was in on the releases, that he would have some knowledge about what's potentially coming down the pipe. And you're right that he isn't overseeing the releases. I just conflated his "mastering consult" credit and him giving interviews into a much bigger role in my head.

So good.

It sounds straight out of the 4-Track Demo album! I'm drooling!

I haven't listened to the whole album yet but Kamikaze is a stand-out for me at the moment. I may prefer it to the studio version. Looking forward to the rest of the demos!