Artist: PJ Harvey
Album: To Bring You My Love (Island Records)
Released: 1995
PJ Harvey is, and probably always will be, something of a maverick within the field of predictable dross that is known as “alternative” these days. There is something fairly disturbing about the monotony ... Read review
After fumbling around with hardcore iconoclast producer Steve Albini onRid of Me(1993) and ... more
signing with U2 manager Paul McGuinness, Polly Jean Harvey is ready to live up to her lethal early promise at last. With its growling bass tones, "Meet Ze Monsta...
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After fumbling around with hardcore iconoclast producer Steve Albini on Rid of Me (1993) ... more
and signing with U2 manager Paul McGuinness, Polly Jean Harvey is ready to live up to her lethal early promise at last. With its growling bass tones, "Meet Ze Mons...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
After fumbling around with hardcore iconoclast producer Steve Albini onRid of Me(1993) and ... more
signing with U2 manager Paul McGuinness, Polly Jean Harvey is ready to live up to her lethal early promise at last. With its growling bass tones, "Meet Ze Monsta" sets the stage early on as Harvey explores her feminine psyche with an intensity and raw power unheard since Patti Smith's heyday. Unlike the terminally inconsistent Smith, however, Harvey plots a brilliant course through slippery laments ("Working For The Man"), corrosive testifying ("Long Snake Moan") and fuzz-toned menace ("Down By The Water"). Sceptics who think Harvey can't outgrow her art-punk base are advised to cue up the flamenco-inflected, string-caressed "Send His Love to Me".--Jeff Bateman
Postage & Packaging:£1.21 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: A musically original and distinctive record Disadvantages: maybe too much vocal distortion at times
...Artist: PJ Harvey
Album: To Bring You My Love (Island Records)
Released: 1995
PJ Harvey is, and probably always will be, something of a maverick within the field of predictable dross that is known as “alternative” these days. There is something fairly disturbing about the monotony and lack of identity of a whole new generation of (predominantly American) guitar based acts. In many ways these wilderness years have ... ...her early career. The key to understanding this journey is the album which bridges the gap between her early primal work and her latter day, more restrained output; namely 1995’s “To Bring You My Love.”
“To Bring You My Love” is by no means an easy record. It demands several listens before its suggestive undertones and raw hooks suck you in. The title track, which opens proceedings, is very much a foretaste of what Harvey has in store ... more
Artist: PJ Harvey Album: To Bring You My Love (Island Records) Released: 1995
PJ Harvey is, and probably always will be, something of a maverick within the field of predictable dross that is known as “alternative” these days. There is something fairly disturbing about the monotony and lack of identity of a whole new generation of (predominantly American) guitar based acts. In many ways these wilderness years have only served to underline just how special the few creative and individual artists out there really are. PJ Harvey is one of these people.
Having gained an element of mainstream acceptance for the beautiful “Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea” in 2000, Polly Jean duly disappeared behind some west country hillside immediately after and has not really been seen since. The album (with it’s understated beauty and cleverly constructed melodies) was a marked transition from the vitriolic, almost inaccessible LP’s that marked her early career. The key to understanding this journey is the album which bridges the gap between her early primal work and her latter day, more restrained output; namely 1995’s “To Bring You My Love.”
“To Bring You My Love” is by no means an easy record. It demands several listens before its suggestive undertones and raw hooks suck you in. The title track, which opens proceedings, is very much a foretaste of what Harvey has in store for the listener on the 10-track album; it builds slowly with a simple mantra of a guitar line increasing slowly in volume before Harvey’s distorted voice rises out of nowhere. Only some haunting organ work and the odd power-chord are added to the mix, yet a great deal of emotive energy is created in what is essentially a fairly simple song.
Harvey’s principle themes; Love, sex, motherhood, religion and death form a lyrical web which she weaves (with some skill) across this dark, brooding album. The second track - “Meet Za Monsta” – is a candid, moody song about sex from a female perspective. It’s fuzzy, heavy guitars throb away, while Harvey sings about a “big, black monsoon” and being “a lucky girl.” Musically it is trademark PJ Harvey, with its raw, fuzzy sounds. Whilst lyrically she gleefully explores the sorts of themes which most people shy away from.
The third number is the brilliant dark-dub track “Working For The Man.” The production team of Flood (who worked with U2 on “Achtung Baby”) and John Parish do a great job in isolating Harvey’s distortion-riddled vocal from the bass-heavy, Portishead-esque, sound. A simple, yet effective drum pattern holds things together and gives the track a late-night, shadowy groove.
The mood changes radically with the more up-tempo (musically at least) “C’Mon Billy” – a song about a man leaving his child-baring lover to fend for herself in the big, bad world. Harvey’s clanging acoustic guitar and her more expressive and singy vocal, are starkly at odds with the fuzzy, distortion that smother much of the album in a dark, musical fog. Harvey intriguingly sings;
“Don’t forget me I had your son Damn thing went crazy But I swear you’re the only one”
“Teclo” is a highly original, yet gloomy piece, which explores notions of grieving and spirituality. Much of Harvey’s work hints at interests in the unknown and forces beyond our control – however always in a subtle, yet suggestive way. A rhythm guitar and organ are Harvey’s only companions until drums and lead guitar join her for the rousing end of the song. Harvey’s distinctive vocal gives depth and character to the lyrics;
“Teclo your death will send me to my grave Let me ride Let me ride Let me ride on his grace For a while”
Track 6 is the raucously noisy, “Long Snake Moan.” A fairly unambiguous song title if ever there was one! Harvey examines notions of power and control within lust. As ever, themes of “god above” and macabre demise are never far from her thoughts;
“Duck you under Deep salt water In my dreaming You’ll be drowning”
The volume is turned down for the sinister and highly spooky “Down By The Water.” Musically Harvey borrows from the atmospherics of early Velvet Underground recordings, but to spectacular effect! The Cello and Viola work on “Down By The Water” gives extra edge to the demented, whisper of a vocal that closes the song to a fade.
“I Think I’m A Mother” is another rhythmically repetitive, haunting track. Harvey’s barely audible vocal hides beneath her own organ and guitar work. The track is one of the weaker moments on an otherwise strong album, however it still manages to avoid being skipped due to it’s powerful atmospherics.
The penultimate track is a mirror reflection of the album’s opener “To Bring You My Love”; namely “Send His Love To Me.” A top 40 single, it comes resplendent with lavish orchestration and a polished, emotive vocal. Polly’s Spanish-sounding guitar (much akin to “The Blood” by The Cure) is captivating and her cohorts do their best to flesh out the sound. Harvey herself sounds raw and sincere when she sings;
“Begging Jesus please Send his love to me”
The closing track is the organ-laden “The Dancer.” Themes of loss, belief and love announce themselves (unsurprisingly) in the opening verse. Musically the track is powerful despite its rhythmical simplicity; although some expressive guitar work from John Parish helps to colour in the would-be cavernous gaps in sound. Polly finishes the album singing about “bringing peace” to her “empty heart” and you are left with the overwhelming feeling of wanting more; of wanting resolution.
Despite the deliberate lack of musicianship, the possible over-use of vocal distortion and Harvey’s propensity for unusual arrangements, “To Bring You My Love” is deceptively coherent. It is not, in any sense, an easy to get into record, but it pays out big dividends if invested in frequently enough. Polly Jean and her musical companions will (most likely) never revisit the murky waters of “To Bring You My Love” – which ensures the record will endure. The more optimistic, accessible side of her character may not be captured on the album, but it is a wonderful snapshot into the mind of a fascinating songwriter and musician. (*8)
Advantages: It's PJ Harvey, man!!!!!! Disadvantages: Erm, I hate to admit...but it's perfect.
I'm treating you to another PJ Harvey, aren't you lucky? This time it's a much more exquisite peice of art, long gone is the rawness of Polly's thundering guitar pounding away, long gone are the harsh brutal lyrics...instead we find: style, blues, werid claustrophobic noises, extreme whispering mixed in with Polly's dark, deep and twisted vocals . With a new imagine as a Gothic Vamp, Polly surprises us yet again with the unexpected lying within her ... ...proof you need to see what an amazing artist this girl is...damnit.
TO BRING YOU MY LOVE
Starts with a faint, distinctive raw guitar strum which gets louder while a organ and a soft drum beat come in. A few seconds later in comes PJ's deep, dark, yet stunning vocal, mixed with purity and such clearness. The chours is simply "To Bring You My Love" which we hear PJ linger on to those very words in a loudish voice, covered by a colliding guitar which ...
RottenPumpkins 19.08.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey
Advantages: see op Disadvantages: None, I don't skip any of the tracks
...cursed god above, forsaken heaven to bring you my love'
>>Meet ze monsta - 'What a monster, what a night, what a lover, what a fight'
>>Working For The Man* - 'God of pistol, god of steel, god is here behind my wheel'
>>C'mon Billy* - 'C'mon Billy, come to me, you know I love you endlessly'
>>Teclo* - 'I learned to beg, I learned to Pray' 'Let me ride on his grace for a while'
>>Long Snake Moan - 'You wanna hear me cry my moan?'
>>Down By The ... ...number'
>>Send His Love To Me* - 'Left alone in desert, this house becomes a hell, this love becomes a tether, this room becomes a cell'
>>The Dancer - 'He came dressed in black with a cross bearing my name, he came bathed in light and splendour and glory'
*Reccommended!
PJ Harvey started off as a trio until Polly Jean decided to work with other artists just before this album was released, like Nick Cave and Tricky. She's from Yeovil and if you ...
pennii 05.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey
Advantages: great music, something for everyone! Disadvantages: Perfection...there is none!
TO BRING YOU MY LOVE – PJ HARVEY
Yes folks, welcome back to PJ Harvey world! Muhahaha. If you haven’t got sick of me writing about PJ, fear not, there are only 2 more albums I plan to write about: p. To Bring You My Love is PJ Harvey’s best selling album to date, even Spin and Rolling Stone were so impressed with it they gave her the award for the best album of 1995. Even the single Down BY The Water awarded her with extra new ... ...need for someone or something to comfort her. Also she took a complete change of image too, wearing heaps off make up, wigs and sexy clothes (C’mon Billy video, whoa!) she completely transferred herself into something people didn’t recognise no-more, later on though she admitted that she didn’t like the way she looked and she felt she had to wear a ‘mask’. To date this is the best vocal you’ll ever hear, PJ’s ...
Clove 19.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey
Advantages: Melodic,less punk than her last2albums.Vocally brilliant/lyrically stunning/musically unbeatable. Disadvantages: I cant think of ANY negative points and I have listened to this album for more than a decade!
To Bring You My Love is probably one of my most played albums since I first got it as a teenager! I really cant rate this album highly enough and the reason for this one being held in higher esteem than all her previous albums is simply that this album has a new found freedom the others dont seem to have. Polly J Harvey split from Robert Ellis and Stephen Vaughn, which gave her the freedom to experiment and deviate from the old bluesy punk that dominated ... ...albums to this were very good and definitely a lot better than most of the bands around at that time, they seemed to focus too much on the harsh brutallity that punk is famed for (which is all good and well) but 'To Bring You My Love' gives a more complex theatrical variety of emotions to deal with. It is said that each song represents a grand gesture and after hearing this I think I can really see that in each song of the album. Lyrically the album ...
SpookyMoon 29.05.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey
Originality
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Quality and consistency...
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Advantages: Beautiful, dark, interesting Disadvantages: Not a commercial sound
The very fact that Dance Hall at Louse Point (which was released in 1996) has been listed on Ciao since 2003 and yet this is the first review is indicative of this way that this album was released, promoted and received. It was released just as PJHarvey was riding the crest of the wave of success of the album 'ToBringYouMyLove', but it seemed to go almost unnoticed, perhaps because top bill went to John Parish (who wrote and played the music, whilst PJHarvey wrote the lyrics and sang vocals) and she was listed as Polly Jean Harvey rather than the usual PJHarvey we know and love her as. Critics saw it as an art experiment, reviews of it are mixed, but to me it retains that bluesy rock sound that we know PJHarvey for and is a beautiful and oddly crafted album of dark moods, angular guitar and percussion and an array of vocal styles ...
Product Information for "To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey" »
Product details
Title
To Bring You My Love
Performer
PJ Harvey
Genre
Rock & Pop
Sub Genre
Alternative
Release Date
02/1995
Recomended Retail Price
10.99 GBP
Original Release Year
1995
Label / Distributor
Island / Universal Music
Engineer
Flood; Polly Jean Harvey
Pieces in Set
1
Studio / Live
Studio
Stereo
Stereo
Format
Performer
EAN
731452408525
Catalogue Number
CID 8035
Additional notes
Album Notes
Personnel: PJ Harvey (vocals, guitar, piano, organ, vibraphone, marimba, percussion, chimes, bell); John Parish (guitar, organ, drums, percussion); Joe Gore (guitar, E-Bow); Sonia Slany (violin); Jules Singleton, Jocelyn Pook (viola); Sian Bell (cello); Mick Harvey (organ, bass); Joe Dilworth (drums); Jean-Marc Butty (drums, percussion). Producers: Flood, Polly Jean Harvey, John Parish. Recorded at Townhouse Three, Battersea, England in September and October 1994. TO BRING YOU MY LOVE was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance. "Down By The Water" was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. The same stylistic evolution which separated DRY from RID OF ME is taken a step further on TO BRING YOU MY LOVE, PJ Harvey's fourth album. No longer relying on the guitar, bass and drum format of standard rock, Harvey takes cues from the likes of indie instigator Trent Reznor to define the new vibe in alternative rock. TO BRING YOU MY LOVE's casual mix of organic and inorganic sounds replaces Harvey's earlier electric precision with a deadlier, more brooding sound. Marking a departure for Harvey, she plays many of the instruments herself, creating a collage of sound that seemed impossible on past recordings. Where the material on those albums was built on driving guitar lines and band interaction, TO BRING YOU MY LOVE flavors dancier grooves, decorated with bass and rhythm patterns. The guitar is more orchestrated--as opposed to obvious--making TO BRING YOU MY LOVE a dramatic feat of arrangement and poise. Once again Harvey far surpasses even the most confident expectations placed upon her as a performer and songwriter, to produce a wholly original and daring album.
Album Reviews
Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.58) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Spin (9/99, p.117) - Ranked #3 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s." Rolling Stone (1/25/96, p.41) - Ranked #1 in the 1996 Critics' Poll. Spin (12/95, p.62) - Ranked #3 on Spin's list of the `20 Best Albums of '95.' New York Times (1/6/96, p.C16) - Included on Jon Pareles' and Neil Strauss' list of the Top 10 Albums of `95 - "In Polly Jean Harvey's songs, love becomes immolation and salvation, holy quest and desperate obsession..." Village Voice (2/20/96) - Ranked #1 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll. Q (2/96, p.63) - Included in Q's 50 Best Albums of 1995 - "...it's sensual, intoxicating stuff, compelling--and expertly--performed..." Melody Maker (12/23-30/95, pp.66-67) - Ranked #9 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's `Albums Of The Year' - "...Rapacious, bluesy, stylistically drawing on Zeppelin and Cave..." NME (12/23-30/95, pp.22-23) - Ranked #8 in NME's `Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995 - "...Obsession, voodoo rituals, religious visions, murder, revenge and a kind of spiritual search for love...set to a creaking, flinty modern-day blues..." Entertainment Weekly (12/29/95-1/5/96, p.132) - Ranked #5 on EW's Top 10 Albums Of 1995. Rolling Stone (3/9/95, pp.63-64) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Harvey envisions a teeming underworld where she is victim, aggressor and accomplice, song by song....all these are put in the service of a primal vision on TO BRING YOU MY LOVE: Harvey's bitter struggles with her demons and her wicked, wanton sympathy for the devil..." Spin (4/95, p.195) - 10 - Classic - "...She knows that rock'n'roll... stimulates desire, and if you're hungry enough, it can...break you apart....Harvey uses it...to free the man in her, and the madwoman, the goddess and the ghost. While most of her peers graze pop culture's surfaces for inspiration, Harvey plunges under. She's bent on touching rock's magical core..." Musician (5/95, pp.85-86) - "...No matter how good her earlier records convinced you Polly Harvey was, she's lots better...an innovative leap forward. She's written primal blues and country-based songs about love, death and longing and sung them passionately with no irony or distance..." Entertainment Weekly (3/10/95, p.68) - "...Her lyrics convey desire and love, while her barbed-wire voice betrays uncertainty about giving over that much of herself....TO BRING YOU MY LOVE is the most welcome of rarities: a move toward maturity without any loss of Harvey's visceral power..." - Rating: A Alternative Press (5/95, pp.74-75) - "...TO BRING YOU MY LOVE could be described as menstrual, in the primeval, ritualistic, sense of the word, the Earth Mother unleashing powers which man would rather lock up for fear of the dark....In another time, they'd call it the blues. But really, it's blacker than that..."
Titles on disc 1
1.
To Bring You My Love
2.
Meet Ze Monsta
3.
Working For The Man
4.
C'mon Billy
5.
Teclo
6.
Long Snake Moan
7.
Down By The Water
8.
I Think I'm A Mother
9.
Send His Love To Me
10.
Dancer
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