PJ Harvey is back! I love this lady like no other. I really get so excited every time she has a new album. She never stops impressing me and all her albums are so different but they are all uniquely PJ and they are all uniquely brilliant. This new album again switches things up and you might not like it at first but you can never go into a new PJ Harvey album expecting it to sound like any of her older albums. Dry and Rid Of Me remain two of my two favorite albums of all time and I would love to have those albums come out all over again but she has already done that. She doesn't need to go back and recreate the same style or energy she was working with back then. If you want those albums again then just go back and listen to them again! Her new album is called Let England Shake. It deals with some dark stuff, but remember, this is still PJ Harvey. The album deals mostly with war and fighting but not just in England, and it is a beautiful album at the same time. The album is what you make it. I am so happy she continues to impress me and make one great album one after the other.
PJ Harvey got her start way back in 1992 with her brilliant debut Dry. It came out in the beginning of summer, just weeks after I graduated from high school. As soon as one of my best friends played me the cassette in her car...I was in love. I think we all needed this album in our lives. It came at the perfect time for me. "Oh My Lover," "Dress," Sheela-Na-Gig," "Plants & Rags," "O Stella," & "Hair" are all on this album. I actually love every single song. It is one of those records that stands up almost 20 years later! I can't really even believe it has been that long. The album was dark and weird, powerful and full of this crazy energy. She seemed to just come out of nowhere. Other than Siouxsie, I really didn't love a whole lot of female musicians at the time. I
needed some more in my life for sure. Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos had come out earlier that year. Debut by Bjork was right around the corner. Rid of Me came out the following year, in May of 1993. I was so excited to check out her second album -- I really had probably listened to Dry hundreds of times already at that point. Rid Of Me was perfect. It was even louder and more aggressive than Dry. I am sure it was not exactly the album that her label wanted her to make but it was another brilliant album and I couldn't get enough. The album featured "50ft Queenie," "Man Size," "Rid of Me," "Legs," & "Yuri-G." I actually didn't get around to seeing her live until her third album. I regret to this day that I didn't see those first two tours!
