CD-Charts Position 1
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White Chalk

by: PJ Harvey

Release Date September 24, 2007
You'd be forgiven, PJ fan or not, if you paused the CD during the first track (or many of the following tracks) to go and make a cup of coffee. It's a disappointing crawl through dreary music and pitiful sounding vocals. Spunky PJ Harvey of old has been kidnapped and we've been left with the loony from the attic and an album that is, for the most part, a lifeless dirge and devoid of merit. This is one promise that remains unfulfilled.

CD-Charts Position 2
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Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

by: PJ HARVEY

Release Date August 25, 2003
I am a very very hard to please, very cynical person.

I am also a massive massive fan of Dry, Rid of Me, 4-track Demos, TBMYL and Is This Desire.

I feel I have to stand up for SFTCSFTS as we seem to have the usual tiresome self-proclaimed "uberfans" slagging it off. Well, if you cannot see the appeal and beauty in tracks like Place Called Home, One Line, Good Fortune and We Float, then I despair of the human race.

And then I haven't even mentioned Big Exit (my 2nd fave PJH tune ever) and Beautiful Feeling (wonderful but perhaps better represented on the Peel Sessions CD).

If you can't appreciate this as a brilliant addition to the PJH
catalogue, then you ARE unwell in some way.

... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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To Bring You My Love

by: PJ Harvey

Release Date August 25, 2003
You aren't even taking a chance at this price. The growly, deep deep deep bass blues take around 2-3 listens to get used to but after that, this record soars. Because every PJH album adds something different it's impossible to say that one is a 'favourite' but I have the title track down officially as music to be played at my funeral. By the time I was 31 when I bought this, I thought it wasnt possible for a record to still be life changing - but this is in that league.

CD-Charts Position 4
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Rid Of Me

by: PJ Harvey

Release Date August 25, 2003
OMG this album scared me when I heard it recently, on going through to discover what exactly PJ Harvey is (if anyone can say). This is as different as can be from the semi pop tones of Stories of the City. It's kind of scary, angry but very sad with a lot of undeniable truths there and matched with a lot of hard rock/punk music being bashed out and some deliberate screaching, shouting, synthed vocals that really confuse you as you can't fit it into your understanding memory slot easily. It really scared the pants off me, probably as it took me by surprise. I do feel kind of tired just listening to it, exhausted myself from the energy. I can't think of many comparrisons but musically Nirvana style really strikes me and maybe the Cranberries as it was early 90s ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Dry

by: PJ Harvey

Release Date October 01, 1999
Polly Jean Harvey rocks and rocks some more. We all know this. It's a universal fact. Dry is a testament to how much, how hard she does this. It's short, brief but powerful. Her voice, beautiful but crazed, is the sound of feminine protest. But these songs are not one dimensional angry anthems. These are songs of crushing desire, red hot burning truth and exquisite despair. Listen to PJ, straining, crawling through sadness in "Plants and Rags". Listen to her triumphant in "Sheela Na Gig". Listen to her roar in Dry.

CD-Charts Position 6
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The Peel Sessions 1991 - 2004

by: PJ Harvey

Release Date October 23, 2006
Ignore the previous reviewer's comments; if - like me - you were mildly disappointed by her last studio album, 'Uh Huh Her', or are simply gagging for her to return to the live arena, 'The Peel Sessions 1991 - 2004' is an essential purchase for all fans of the artist popularly known as 'the Peej'.

As she points out in the liner notes, John Peel's opinion mattered to Harvey and, accordingly, she has handpicked a selection of tracks spanning her career, up to and including the release of the aforementioned 'Uh Huh Her', which would have certainly met with his approval. As a result, the lucky listener gets two previously rare songs ('Naked Cousin' and 'Wang Dang Doodle') alongside a plaintive, stripped-down version of 'That Was My Veil' and an impassioned, histrionic ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Is This Desire?

by: PJ Harvey

Release Date August 25, 2003
I bought this album when it came out, when I was but a child of 15, and I love it more than ever.

There was a review somewhere that accused the album of not moving on from To Bring You My Love, to which I could not disagree more. There is a frozon, muted beauty to this rather bleak album. It is daring and emotional, she's screaming one moment, and in dulled into a coma another. This album features the best of PJ's fairy taleish songs that began on the previous album - female characters feature strongly (but, of course, musically these are very different).

It is not perfect, some songs are not great songs, but it is brilliant in the sense that some people will love this album. PJ has created something of value.

CD-Charts Position 8
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4-Track Demos

by: PJ Harvey

Release Date October 12, 1993
Demos is a collection of (as it states) demos recorded on a simple 4 track, with multi instrumentalist Harvey doing vocals, guitar, backing, keyboard, organ, clapping, finger clicking, tambourine & harmonica in a 'one lady' show. This is an astounding & refreshing take on low down & dirty garage punk blues at its best! Polly always delivers the most sincere ripsnorting intense passion & here is no exception. She uses her unique vocals to max. effect as an instument itself, howling crying singing taunting like some possessed banshee. I cant think of any other woman in rock history that lets rip with as much genuine intensity; Courtney? Patti? Peaches? Souxie?, all pale in her presence. Never afraid to express the baser emotions of lust, rejection pain & 'ugliness' etc, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Dance Hall At Louse Point

by: John Parish PJ Harvey

Release Date August 21, 2003
Dance Hall at Louse Point is an excellent and often unfairly overlooked collaboration between the Dorset rock queen and her long-time collaborator John Parish. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this is late-night mood music of the highest order.

The lo-fi, stripped-down production and Parish's stark musical backing perfectly compliments some of Harvey's rawest vocals to date. Throughout the record she swings dramatically between different vocal registers, from angelic choirgirl falsetto to creepy whisper to shredded gut howls, as if she's role-playing different characters for each song. She sings every song on this album with a demonic, throat-clenching intensity that's almost frightening. City of No Sun and Taut are not for the faint-hearted!

Songs like Rope Bridge ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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The Devil

by: PJ Harvey

Release Date March 17, 2008
Dance Hall at Louse Point is an excellent and often unfairly overlooked collaboration between the Dorset rock queen and her long-time collaborator John Parish. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this is late-night mood music of the highest order.

The lo-fi, stripped-down production and Parish's stark musical backing perfectly compliments some of Harvey's rawest vocals to date. Throughout the record she swings dramatically between different vocal registers, from angelic choirgirl falsetto to creepy whisper to shredded gut howls, as if she's role-playing different characters for each song. She sings every song on this album with a demonic, throat-clenching intensity that's almost frightening. City of No Sun and Taut are not for the faint-hearted!

Songs like Rope Bridge ... Read More: