Stories From The City Stories From The Sea - PJ Harvey > Reviews

Advantages: It's a PJ Harvey album, alot happens
Disadvantages: A few of the songs seem out of place but don't let that put you off!

~Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea The 7th album by Polly Jean Harvey isn’t all what you’d expect it to be. With each album Pj surprises us fans, each album is different, the music changes, her voice changes and her whole image undergoes a whole complete make over. Over the last decade PJ has brought us many heartfelt, intense, sad, lustful, painful, raw songs, many of them are to do with finding love and how desperate she ... Read review

Advantages: Varied musical styles and the tracks fit together nicely.
Disadvantages: Doesn't particularly grab your attention

...from 'Stories from the city, stories from the sea', 'Good Fortune' seemed to mark a change in direction, being much more...well, upbeat (sample lyric:"Things I once thought/unbelieveable/in my life/have all taken place"). And so, because she was playing at this year's Reading festival, and because I found it cheap in a Camden second hand record shop, I bought her latest album. A lot of this album does seem to be very happy - although not quite ... Read review

Advantages: guest appearance by Thom Yorke
Disadvantages: perhaps too well produced?

...to ‘Stories from the city, stories from the sea’. ... Read review

Advantages: Original
Disadvantages: There is none

...to us. Each of the stories is powerfully evocative of a different emotion, in places haunting, mocking, and nostalgic. The songs are quite simple but can involve numerous twists and turns. I was often suprised how PJ Harvey can change the tone of a song completely by subtle changes in the way she sings it. There is an underlying feeling of movement from one song to the next which runs through the entire album. It has a very different appeal to it ... Read review