VH1 100 GREATEST: PJ HARVEY

One artist who Larry Flick and I never ever ever EVER agree on is PJ Harvey. She is one of my favorite artists ever, I was glad to see her in VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music special tonight.  She'd be in my top 20 for sure.

Just watching the montage of images of her was pretty cool. She doesn't really remind me of any other artist, but if I had to pick one, it would be Bowie. Someone on the show said this, but every PJ Harvey album has a concept (and I always felt the same was true for Bowie).  As with Bowie, she has a look for each album. And not a look that a stylist is coming up with. I never feel like a "fashion expert" tells Bowie what to wear.  And I doubt any such "expert" would survive telling Polly what outfits she should be rockin'. Certain albums feature her playing certain instruments.  Some albums are guitar albums. One was a harp album. Sometimes, she's only singing. It's almost like she inhabits a different character every time, and each character has a different take on life, a different style, a different talent. She has a vision for every single thing that she does. You never get the sense that she's putting out an album because it's been two years since her last one.  When I think of artists who should get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the next few years, she's on the shortlist.

She's put out so many classic albums.  Her first two, 1992's Dry and 1993's Rid Of Me, are raw as hell, and they're as heavy as Slayer. Then she completely changed things up on her third LP, 1995's To Bring You My Love, produced by Flood. I've never heard anything like that album before or since.

In 2000, she put out Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, which I love (although she's kind of said that she doesn't like that one). It's a cleaner, almost arena ready sound (and in fact, the songs sounded great when she performed them at Madison Square Garden opening for U2). But she never repeated that either. Then, last year's Let England Shake was one of her most challenging and rewarding LPs. It topped critics polls (in the U.K., not as much here in the U.S.) and was my ninth favorite album of 2011.

BEST OF 2011 - #9 - PJ HARVEY "LET ENGLAND SHAKE"

Most of the albums that I've been writing about as my favorite 10 albums of 2011 are pretty enjoyable.  That's not really the case with PJ Harvey's Let England Shake.  It's an album haunted by the ghosts of war, specifically those from England from World War I.

And yet somehow it seems very much of it's time, 2011.  I'm not British, but it seems to capture the uneasiness of our time, the angst people are feeling.

When I first heard the album, I wrote that I don't always like Ms. Harvey's albums. But it's always interesting to see what she'll do next. She never lets herself be a prisoner of her past, and she always challenges herself. I think that's one of the reasons why she gets so much respect:  Let England Shake won Britain's prestigious Mercury Music Prize (she's the first artist to win it twice, the first time being for Stories From City, Stories From The Sea). It was also named album of the year in UK magazines Mojo and Uncut (it came in towards the bottom of Rolling Stone's top 50).

When PJ Harvey first hit the scene with Dry in 1992, she reminded me a bit of Kurt Cobain.  To think that she has evolved so much since then is stunning, and I can't wait to hear what she'll do next.

PJ HARVEY - LET ENGLAND SHAKE

I am always interested to check out whatever PJ Harvey is doing. Doesn't always mean I'll like it, but she's never boring.

A hallmark of her career is that she never repeats herself. So you never know what you'll get, or if you'll like it.

Let England Shake is really different from her past work. Musically, it's as far from her punk blues beginnings as she's ever gotten. On this album, it sounds like she's never left the U.K.  It's very British somehow, but I wouldn't compare it to any specific examples of British music. That's the thing about PJ Harvey, she always sounds like herself.  I want to say it's like British folk, but it doesn't sound like Bert Jansch or Richard Thompson.

Also, PJ usually writes about herself, and on this one she is writing, as the title insinuates, about England. Specifically war in England, World War I.  She's writing a lot about the horrors of war, which obviously resonates today.  She's not gonna do a Devils and Dust or a Rage Against The Machine album. But when she sings about dead bodies dropping, it doesn't matter what war she's talking about, does it?

I don't love every PJ Harvey album... her last one, John Parrish + PJ Harvey's AWoman A Man Walked By didn't really stick with me. This one does.  Maybe because of the times, it does.  I happened to be listening to this today while reading Rolling Stone's "The Kill Team" story which documents some true atrocities, but this one is really resonating with me.