RID OF ME is the second album released by massively talented and multi award winning musician PJ Harvey, released 1993. But is it good?
PJ Harvey is an artist you're pretty much bound to come across if you spend enough time reading about music- be it her collaborations with Nick Cave or many others- and has been someone I've been considering checking out for a while. And since I write a blog where I find new music, well, aint that just bloody convenient?
Harvey is often said to have redefined herself alot over the years, so picking one album to start with seemed difficult. I looked at the descriptions of some of her albums, and RID OF ME was consistently described as "raw, aggressive, noisey" which all sounded like music to my ears (har har) so I thought I'd start here.
The opening track, also the title track, sets a pretty clear mission statement for the album. It opens with quiet guitar and drums beating in the background, before Harvey starts crooning in the background about what sounds like being attached to someone after a nasty breakup, before the track explodes with "Don't you, don't you wish you never never met her". The track repeats the motif "Lick my legs I'm on fire, Lick my legs of desire" alot too. When the track explodes for the second time, the first hook is back and seemingly back and bigger than before with the second joining after a short deliberation. After the first is done, the twisted vocal sings the second again on it's own and the track ends. A very very good start the record.
Second track MISSED deflated some of the energy built up in the first, but still vaguely continues the theme of missing someone, as the title suggests. It just feels pretty underwhelming compared to the first track, but the sound of Harvey's vocals are still really good. When the hook comes back in at the end, the sound of the drums clattering is pretty good but I don't think Harvey's vocals quite match them for alot of it.
Third track LEGS opens fairly strongly with Harvey wailing "you're divine" over this blue-sy guitar bit. When we get into the track proper, Harvey's vocal presence only improves, and she still seems to be hung up over the same person. This is becoming quite the fucking occurence, Polly! The drums become more slamming and punishing as the track continues.
RUB 'TILL IT BLEEDS might be my favourite song on the album, starting with a fairly innocuous 2 chord guitar part, before the drum lazily starts wandering in and out, and Harvey's vocals start, and when this track goes off it goes off, the same riff is back but heeps more ferocity and the drummer just pounds the snare. By this point the album has more than established itself as a big fan of the loud/quiet dynamic that was so prevelant in the 90's. The track continues with the same energy 'till it finishes.
Hook is kind of messy and muddy. Not unpleasent to listen to, but not very remarkable either. After that we get MAN-SIZE SEXTET, which is backed with these "horror movie like" (quote, my mother) strings and the lyrics are pretty blatantly about double standards women face societally (in my opionion anyway) and Harvey's vocals are mocking and strangely performed. It's a pretty cool moment on the album.
Next is HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED which is a Bob Dylan cover. I've got a pretty bad history with Dylan covers, mostly as a result of The first white stripes record having this utterly shite cover of ONE MORE CUP OF COFFEE. I don't mind this one as much, the ending is good, and it isn't actively offensive as the White's version.
50 FT QUEENIE is next, and does not feature anyone called Queenie, that is the song name. This was the first single from the album, which is a pretty odd choice in my view but then I haven't won 2 mercury awards. The music video features a Harvey who looks like she just got out the shower, and the world's worst cameraman. It's a good track with a start reminscent of The Velvet Underground and some cool guitar tones in the middle.
YURI G is the other contender for my favourite song on this album. The track starts with just bass and drum, and Harvey's fuzzy vocals, before the the endlessly catchy chorus comes in with the instrumental proper. The track only builds with energy and intensity and just bangs the whole way through. Unfortunately, after this, we get MAN SIZE, which is an alternate (more fitting) instrumental version of the earlier track, meaning this album commits the unforgivable sin of having the same song twice in the tracklisting. Not only that, the instrumental just isnt as good. This was also the second single, and thank god Harvey dropped her cameraman for the video and just opted for a tripod instead.
Next track is DRY, which shares a name with PJ's first album. It;s fairly unremarkable besides some cool classic rocks guitar tones after the chrous. Again, not a bad track, just not very memorable either, but at least it wraps up quick. ME-JANE follows this, and the start feels like bits we've heard before on the record, but as it gets into it, the drama of the track is revealed. The loud dynamic is flipped between often here, and there are some cool guitar tones too.
SNAKE is 95 seconds long and the lyrics read with alot of biblical subtext, but still features line like "You salty dog". It's a pretty amped up segway into final track ECSTACY, and features some cool blue-sy slide guitar, and the lyrics reference, well, being in ecstacy, be that from the drug or maybe from being with someone, as Harvey begs someone to "look at me". It's a fine closer to the record with the outro jam serving as a pretty good send off.
Overall, I enjoyed the record. A bit hit and miss, sure, but more hits than misses. I think I may have set my standards and expectations a bit too high when I saw the labels of "raw, aggressive" etc probably just because of how spoilt with unflinching, uncompromisingly hateful and destructive records we are in 2020- Lingua Ignota, Duaghters, etc- but it still has some alt rock bangers in it, and has definitely given reason to explore the rest of Harvey's discography. A pretty great album overall.
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