Why you need to know:
PJ Harvey is one of the most creative and influential artists of recent years. And after 7 years, she is back with a highly anticipated album.
PJ Harvey is one of those creative forces that are witnessed very occasionally and we can only enjoy that he does not stop, and try to decipher his work. She explores various artistic fields, such as poetry (she has published two books) and theater (the adaptation of All About Eve), Polly Jean releases her tenth studio album today, I Inside the Old Year Dying.
For this installment, once again he collaborates with John Parish and Flood in production, and in twelve songs, PJ Harvey invites us into his world of reinventions once again. On a deeply local record (with plenty of Dorset County inspiration) the iconic English artist is dedicated to intriguing us by using the Dorset dialect, with double intent at times, and changing rhythms and directions throughout this installment.
An utterly poetic PJ Harvey reinvention
PJ Harvey launched last year Eaglea book that tells the journey of a nine-year-old girl, and in a completely poetic state of mind, she worked on this record as an extension of her book.
This is present in everything I Inside the Old Year Dying, with a vocabulary, characters and references that make it a complement to the poetic work of PJ Harvey, but at the same time makes us see a little of that world, without reading Eagle necessarily.
his predecessor, The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016) continued with some elements that until then had characterized PJ Harveylike the well-marked percussions that seem to lead marches, distorted guitars, and her leading voice, either narrating a scene, or directly denouncing what is happening in her surrounding reality.
This predominated in discs like Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (2000), but now, this album is completely out of everything we know of PJ Harveand. And it fascinates us. We don’t know how this record came to his mind, but the origin and development is different from what exists up to now of the English artist.
One of the elements that innovate and give this PJ Harvey album its own atmosphere is the participation of Adam “Cecil” Bartlett, who was in charge of recording and incorporating recordings from the field in the album. This is clearly heard on some songs, which have sounds of sheep or flies, but it opens up the discussion on other songs, where you’re not sure if you’re hearing an instrument or just Dorset wind.
As a full-fledged artist, we had also known Polly Jean’s more relaxed and intimate moments, such as the rare but beautiful “England”, or the eclectic “You Come Through”, a ballad with strings that follow her voice, trapped between string instruments. percussion that seem to place us in a room of mirrors. Although we notice those sounds on this album, his tenth album breaks all mental construction about PJ Harvey.
PJ Harvey is an artist committed to her own world
Maybe we will meet the less intense album by PJ Harvey, in which he turns off the distortions of guitars and prioritize spaces, your voice and acoustic instruments. Even the seamer “A Noiseless Noise”, We notice that the rhythm speeds up a bit and there are attempts at distortion, but it is to a lesser degree than what we had known.
From “Prayer at the gate”, PJ Harvey introduces us to a high-pitched melody that repeats throughout the songin a very sober atmosphere that follows a narrative about life and death.
“Lwonesome Tonight” is typical folky with her voice reaching light highs. The classic understated but persistent percussion makes this a classic PJ Harvey song, who incorporates Dorset dialect into this track that has at least two Elvis Presley references. We hear this song happening in a staging, with the artist as the protagonist.
It’s no secret that since I was a child, PJ Harvey admired Elvis, and in Orlham and this new album, she pays homage to the singerbut it also lets us see everything it means for her development, from childhood to now.
PJ Harvey’s quality continues and improves
PJ Harvey’s minimalist yet extremely hypnotic elegance makes us hear beyond the novel of his novel, and recognize that the composition, execution and production of the songs are on another level. The balance in “Lwonesome Tonight” is admirable, perhaps highlighting the impeccable voice of the artist, who is also a master of melodies on this album.
“All Souls” is a funeral march that seems to mark an interlude on the record, and PJ’s intention to convey very particular feelings works and is reflected in this song. Playing with elements other than acoustic, PJ uses synthetic keyboards that change the dynamics of the record quite a bit. We know that he only needs his voice to move us, but on this occasion, the instrument that he accompanies raises his voice in one of the most austere songs on the record.
Maybe “A Noiseless Noise” is the most violent song on the album, and it is no coincidence that it is the seamer, since in this way the album ends with a more accelerated rhythm, which breaks with what has been presented up to that moment. One more change that keeps us attentive to what follows on this PJ Harvey album, and even that makes us think about reading Orlham.
PJ Harvey gives us one of the albums with the most messages of his career
In one of the releases with more background messages, PJ Harvey manages to keep the record from feeling like an Orlham accessory piecebut rather stands on its own merits, and though it’s loaded with images and events from his new book, we think the new songs it presents are profound yet digestible, even without full context.
His voice stands out once again, in the opener and “A Child’s Question, August”, among others, in addition to the sometimes creepy work with environmental recordings in the Dorset countryside. It’s not common to hear animals or wind on a record, and with PJ Harvey’s particular folk, the combination is simply a delight.
With different versions, official merchandise and even the lyrics of “Lwonesome Tonight” signed that they can get on their official site, PJ Harvey celebrates the release of his tenth studio album, a marvel of production that allows us to see very closely the creative mind of a modern genius.
towards the autumn, PJ Harvey has a brief tour in Europe, and it seems difficult for him to go around Mexicobut we do not lose hope that he will come to present his new album in a show that would surely have many theatrical and dramatic elements, with this release containing those elements.
