PJ Harvey Performs an Exorcism

PJ Harvey is not exactly a household name, but those familiar with her music can attest that it's nothing short of volcanic. Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with her background except that she was a voracious Captain Beefheart fan and that she was raised on a sheep farm somewhere in the UK. Harvey came into her own in the early 90's with blistering three minute screeds like "Dry", "Rid of Me" and "50 ft. Queenie". She came out of nowhere and drop kicked the male dominated grunge scene with her own brand of speed guitar and lyrics that explored the none too softer side of the female psyche. But it was her third studio album, "To Bring You My Love" where Harvey reached the apex of her creative powers. Released in 1995, "To Bring you My Love" is a mix of rubbery guitar blasts and dark confessionals. Bluesy mumbling and nursery rhyme threats mingle to create a brilliant manifesto of a woman's quest for love and her crisis of faith.

As technically gifted a vocalist she is, Harvey doesn't find it beneath her to utilize various vocal registers to achieve some surprisingly chilling effects. She conjures a mean operatic vibrato toward the end of the title track, "To Bring You My Love". It's also the album's opener, setting the tone with an apocalyptic guitar strum. On "Working for the Man" - a song about an exploration of faith - Harvey's voice barely registers above a whisper, croaking, "don't you know yet who I am/working harder for the Man"."Goin' 'round and doin' good" is all she can conclude as a wall of bass creeps up to the climax; and just as it threatens to shatter your system, it ends with a throaty whoop that leaves you breathless. "Long Snake Moan" continues to mix the sacred and profane. Lyrics with religious references are underscored by a bellowing guitar.

One can argue that Harvey's album presages the Christian Rock movement, but this is far dirtier and messier; the message less positive. The dark, Bluesy arrangements tinge the album with the sinister and holy. "Down by the Water" which allegedly addresses a mother killing her daughter, does redeem itself in the sing-songy finale as she hisses "little fish, big fish swimming in the water/come back here and give me my daughter" -- but even then it feels as if it's gone too far. "I think I'm a Mother" is a menacing number that plods along like a wounded behemoth. It never grows to an orgiastic crescendo, but just simmers in Harvey's deliberate, almost campy bass delivery. It's a slow burn of a song that flays you before you even know it.

"Meet Ze Monsta" is the second track on the CD and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first. I liked her ironic baritone delivery and the screaming refrain What a Monster/What a Night/What a Lover/What a Fight, but it wasn't until I heard the song in context with the entire album that I came to appreciate what "Ze Monsta" was all about. Like most brilliant forms of art, "To Bring You My Love" bears a frustrating and contradictory message. Just as Harvey feels it vital to confront personal demons, as "Meet Ze Monsta" apparently addresses, she also seems to revel in embracing them -- a sympathy for the devil, if you will. It's complicated, but every time my walkman queues to that song, the endorphin rush kicks in. My face flushes red and my heart pounds in time to the fat chunks of ominous guitar that spill from the headphones. Tinnitus be damned, but there's a point in "Monsta" when Harvey punctuates the dissonance with a shrill, insidious howl turned inside out. It's a banshee's wail to keep the demons at bay, and for that split moment when Harvey roars, life lifts from me in layers and I feel my demons too, are momentarily expelled. It's as if the space in my mind's room is blasted clear and the hope of a fresh start, no matter how ephemeral, similarly offers the hope of the possible.

After almost fifteen years, To Bring You My Love still remains a seminal work. With haunting lyrics and scathing guitars, Harvey works her voodoo to manage her demons, and just maybe she can momentarily expel yours too. And that is beautiful.

********************************************
Some Other CD Reviews:

Fiona Apple - When the Pawn....

Olive - Extra Virgin

Pulp - This is Hardcore

Madonna - American Life

Ivy - Long Distance