THOM YORKE + PJ HARVEY, SITTIN’ IN A TREE

by Chris Karoli & Holly Tedford

dearest readers;

a number of you have asked why i only write about indie & weird girl mu[sic] in this fabulous column. i hear yr voices and i feel yr pain. therefore, next issue we will feature an exclusive interview with Godspeed You Black Emperor, an awe-inspiring Montreal group composed of 77.77% male musicians! for now, satisfy yourselves with reviews of two major releases, one chick-centric, one dude-oriented. thanks to our special guest reviewers for waxing opinionated this month. –Miss Tif

PJ’s Restraint:

Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

reviewed by Holly Tedford

In her early work, PJ Harvey keened like a banshee and growled like a she-wolf over a distorted melee of jangling percussion and dissonant guitar. Her new release, Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, displays a much more mellow side, but it doesn’t disturb the righteous rage that still lurks within the richly textured darkness of every song.

Melodrama rules this album, and an inattentive first listening could dismiss it as just more indie pop angst. But Polly Jean has not lost her edge. Even the most tender love songs subtly twist the promise of contentment into the threat of disaster. She sings of beautiful boys, shooting stars, and even a rainbow for pete’s sake. But then the angry PJ Harvey that we know and love reappears in the hypnotically pulsing "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore" and the uninhibited "Kamikaze."

Complex harmonic layers and trancelike rhythms back Harvey’s impressive vocals, which plunge effortlessly from the ethereal heights to the loamy depths before soaring right back up again. She shrieks less than she used to, but her restraint lends power to the softer songs. She could explode at any second but doesn’t because it would destroy the carefully built, menacing mood.

Fans of the way PJ Harvey’s old recordings made you want to scream bloody murder and thrash around the room may be disappointed. But Stories demonstrates that PJ Harvey knows when to hold back and when to let go, with mesmerizing results.