It would be unfair to expect artists to convey only one emotion
\nto their audience. The New Pornographers shouldn’t have to release
\nhappy music all the time, just because their first two albums were
\npop ecstasy. If Trent Reznor falls in love, he should do an album
\nabout the experience if he thinks it would be a good subject. After
\nall, love changes an artist — case in point with PJ Harvey.<\/p>\n
In the angst-ridden ’90s, Harvey was the queen of angst;
\nproducing the back-to-back classics
\nRid Of Me<\/i> and
\nTo Bring You My Love<\/i>. Greatness took its toll on Harvey,
\nhowever. In an interview in
\nRolling Stone<\/i>, Harvey said she never wanted to be in the
\nemotional state that she was in when she recorded
\nTo Bring You My Love<\/i>. So in 2000, Harvey moved overseas to
\nNew York City. She also fell in love. The two major changes
\nresulted in
\nStories From The City, Stories From The Sea<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The album’s rich elegance draws images of late-night parties on
\nrooftops, cab rides through Manhattan and falling into “Good
\nFortune” with a new relationship full of possibilities. It’s easily
\nHarvey’s sunniest album. Still, there’s plenty of dark corridors
\nawaiting listeners. PJ Harvey at her most cheerful is still darker
\nthan the most angry Alanis Morissette record.<\/p>\n
As a rock album,
\nStories From The City, Stories From The Sea<\/i> is amazingly
\nconsistent. “Good Fortune” is great AOL rock material and the
\nshredding “Kamikaze” would have fit in perfect with her earlier
\nworks. Hell, Fox even played guitar riffs from “Big Exit” to hype
\nthe NFL playoffs in 2001. For any other artist,
\nStories From The City, Stories From The Sea<\/i> would have been
\na crowning achievement. But not every artist is PJ Harvey.<\/p>\n
As consistent, enjoyable and flat out rocking as
\nStories From The City, Stories From The Sea<\/i> is, it is also
\nthe first PJ Harvey that is relatively free of danger for the
\nlistener. Every album she released before
\nStories<\/i>, was a major turning point. Dry was the debut that
\nannounced her talent,
\nRid of Me<\/i> was menstruation punk at its creative peak,
\nTo Bring You My Love<\/i> was her masterpiece and Is This Desire
\nwas just plain weird — in the best of ways. Each turn you didn’t
\nknow what to expect with a PJ Harvey album. And with Stories, it
\nwas the first of her albums where a seasoned PJ Harvey listener
\nwasn’t exactly bowled over by her boldness. Even her duet with Thom
\nYorke on “This Mess We’re In” seems more like a hipster marriage of
\ntalent than a truly great song that utilizes both of their
\ngifts.<\/p>\n
Still, Stories is far from treading water. PJ Harvey celebrated
\nthe joys of uprooting herself and falling in love. She also had her
\nshare of haunting ballads, namely the ghostly closing track “We
\nFloat.” Stories may be a standard rock album, but Harvey can still
\nmake even a traditional rock album sound as dangerous as falling
\nhead over heels in love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5801],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37851","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pj-harvey","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37851"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}