Saturday, 6 August 2016

All Songs, Best to Worst: PJ Harvey

   So back in April I wrote some articles on Guns N' Roses and it was a hoot, so I figured I'll try writing something else music-related. I heard that in June Consequence of Sound ranked every Red Hot Chili Peppers song – all 236 of them – from best to worst. It's a brilliant idea, right? Why didn't I think of that? I thought it would be cool to do the same to an artist that I really like. And that's what I'm going to do here, starting with PJ Harvey's 107 songs. The first time I listened to PJ Harvey's music was in 2012 (when I tried Rid of Me) and since then I've been working my way through her discography to the point where I now own all nine of her albums.
   “Who is PJ Harvey?” you might ask. Polly Jean Harvey is an alternative rock singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist from Dorset, England. She's probably most well-known for her 90's works, though her 21st century material has seen plenty of success as well (she's the only artist to have won the Mercury Prize twice). I guess what drew me into her type of music was the raw emotion of her vocals, the stark lyrics, and the instrumental intensity of her 1990's material. Over the years her albums have taken on a wide variety of musical genres. Her first three albums were very alternative, with an indie rock feel and mix of blues rock as well. The fourth album, Is This Desire?, was again alternative, but was more experimental and had some electronic elements. In the first half of the 2000's, PJ Harvey released two more alt-rock albums, the first with a more pop feel (but still good) and the second which was kind of all over the place in terms of genre, but still raw and unpredictable. Harvey's sound took a sharp turn with the release of 2007's White Chalk, a piano-driven album that delves into the realm of gothic eeriness. Her latest two albums – the latter of which was released just three months ago – continued the trend of PJ singing in a higher register about social issues and history in an indie/folk rock style. In short, no two of her albums sound alike.
   If any of this sounds interesting to you, then I'd advise checking some of these songs out starting at the top. And just for the record, this list only includes songs from PJ Harvey's nine studio albums. This list won't contain “Shaker Aamer”, any collaborative songs, or any special edition-type releases. So here we go.

1. “Dress”, Dry (1992)
2. “A Place Called Home”, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000)
3. “Down by the Water”, To Bring You My Love (1995)
4. “Send His Love to Me”, TBYML
5. “Rub 'til it Bleeds”, Rid of Me (1993)
6. “The Last Living Rose”, Let England Shake (2011)
7. “The Wheel”, The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016)
8. “Happy and Bleeding”, Dry
9. “Rid of Me”, ROM
10. “Let England Shake”, LES
11. “Oh My Lover”, Dry
12. “Is This Desire?”, Is This Desire? (1998)
13. “The Life & Death of Mr. Badmouth”, Uh Huh Her (2004)
14. “A Perfect Day Elise”, ITD
15. “When Under Ether”, White Chalk (2007)
16. “To Bring You My Love”, TBMYL
17. “Beautiful Feeling”, SFTCSFTS
18. “On Battleship Hill”, LES
19. “The Words that Maketh Murder”, LES
20. “Fountain”, Dry
21. “C'mon Billy”, TBYML
22. “The Devil”, WC
23. “Sheela Na Gig”, Dry
24. “All and Everyone”, LES
25. “O Stella”, Dry
26. “Big Exit”, SFTCSFTS
27. “This is Love”, SFTCSFTS
28. “The Garden”, ITD
29. “Legs”, ROM
30. “The Glorious Land”, LES
31. “Good Fortune”, SFTCSFTS
32. “My Beautiful Leah”, ITD
33. “The Community of Hope”, TH6DP
34. “Hanging in the Wire”, LES
35. “Water”, Dry
36. “The Dancer”, TBMYL
37. “The Wind”, ITD
38. “River Anacostia”, TH6DP
39. “Pocket Knife”, UHH
40. “Silence”, WC
41. “One Line”, SFTCSFTS
42. “A Line in the Sand”, TH6DP
43. “Hook”, ROM
44. “Man-Size”, ROM
45. “Dear Darkness”, WC
46. “You Come Through”, UHH
47. “Ecstasy”, ROM
48. “The Mountain”, WC
49. “The Letter”, UHH
50. “Meet Ze Monsta”, TBYML
51. “Working for the Man”, TBMYL
52. “The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore”, SFTCSFTS
53. “Grow Grow Grow”, WC
54. “The Ministry of Social Affairs”, TH6DP
55. “To Talk to You”, WC
56. “The Slow Drug”, UHH
57. “Victory”, Dry
58. “Plants and Rags”, Dry
59. “You Said Something”, SFTCSFTS
60. “The Ministry of Defence”, TH6DP
61. “Hair”, Dry
62. “Missed”, ROM
63. “Me-Jane”, ROM
64. “Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln”, TH6DP
65. “We Float”, SFTCSFTS
66. “Angelene”, ITD
67. “Dry”, ROM
68. “Cat on the Wall”, UHH
69. “This Mess We're in”, SFTCSFTS
70. “It's You”, UHH
71. “Long Snake Moan”, TBYML
72. “Who the Fuck?”, UHH
73. “Shame”, UHH
74. “No Child of Mine”, UHH
75. “The Orange Monkey”, TH6DP
76. “Catherine”, ITD
77. “In the Dark Places”, LES
78. “Before Departure”, WC
79. “Snake”, ROM
80. “The Desperate Kingdom of Love”, UHH
81. “The Sky Lit Up”, ITD
82. “Chain of Keys”, TH6DP
83. “White Chalk”, WC
84. “Kamikaze”, SFTCSFTS
85. “50 ft Queenie”, ROM
86. “The Piano”, WC
87. “Electric Light”, ITD
88. “The Darker Days of Me & Him”, UHH
89. “The River”, ITD
90. “Horses in My Dreams”, SFTCSFTS
91. “Joe”, Dry
92. “Teclo”, TBYML
93. “Written on the Forehead”, LES
94. “Medicinals”, TH6DP
95. “Yuri G”, ROM
96. “Dollar, Dollar”, TH6DP
97. “Bitter Branches”, LES
98. “Joy”, ITD
99. “Broken Harp”, WC
100. “Highway 61 Revisited”, ROM
101. “The End”, UHH
102. “England”, LES
103. “I Think I'm a Mother”, TBYML
104. “No Girl So Sweet”, ITD
105. “The Colour of the Earth”, LES
106. Untitled (seagulls), UHH
107. “Man-Size Sextet”, ROM



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