STACK #224 June 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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PJ HARVEY Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (2000)

This month we’re Lifting the Lid on the fifth album from PJ Harvey; here’s your cheat sheet to the phenomenal Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea . Meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled for Harvey’s upcoming newie, I Inside the OldYear Dying (due July 7 via Partisan/Liberation). Words Bryget Chrisfield

NewYork state of mind This album’s cover shot captures PJ crossing a Manhattan street sporting a stylish black dress, designer shades (at night), and clutching a metallic gold handbag. Having felt “very inspired” during a month spent in New York filming Hal Hartley’s The You’ve got to admit that Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea – which sold a million copies internationally – is about as accessible as the sublime Polly Jean Harvey gets. “I had never tried to make a sparkly-sounding pop record before,” PJ later commented. “Having explored that area, it’s not really where my heart and soul lie. I learnt that I’m naturally drawn to uneasy, difficult music.” Often referred to as her ‘happy’ record, the Mercury Prize-winning Stories... can only really be described as such in relation to PJ’s previous output (particularly the icy soundscapes of 1998’s Is This Desire? ).

An outtake from the Stories.. . album cover photoshoot, by Maria Mochnacz

PJ’s home in Dorset, England. Stories... was also recorded in the English countryside, near Milton Keynes, with longtime associates Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey of The Bad Seeds. Triptych ofThom feats We feel crushed every single time we hear the section of This Mess We’re In that

to have a very different dimension brought in by somebody else’s song,” she has revealed. “It adds so much dynamic within the record to have this other character coming in. I get tired of my own voice. It’s nice to hear somebody else’s.” Thom also sings backing vocals on One Line and Beautiful Feeling . Setting Mercury records PJ is the only artist to have won two Mercury Prizes, and Stories... was the first album by a female to take out this prestigious award. The 2001 ceremony took place on September 11, and PJ – who was touring the States at the time – made her acceptance speech via telephone. “My only memory of that day, really, is being in the hotel room and watching the television and seeing the Pentagon burning,” PJ said while accepting her second Mercury Prize (for 2011’s Let England Shake ) IRL, “and I felt so separate from the prize that was being given here [in the UK] at that time...”

Book of Life (in which PJ plays Mary Magdalene), the musician returned for a longer stint in 1999. “New York certainly gave me a different kind of energy,” she explained during an interview. “I do think that has permeated into some of the music. I had long wanted to [live there]... I can remember even when we were filming, I was writing songs, some of which ended up on this record.” But although many of the songs on Stories... were penned in New York and contain geographical lyrical mentions (e.g. “On a rooftop in Brooklyn”, “When we walked through Little Italy”, “I’m in New York”), others were written and demoed at

features PJ’s spoken-word delivery, echoing (and then diverging from) Thom Yorke’s mesmerising vocals: “What were you wanting? (What was it you wanted?)/ I just wanna say (I just wanna say don’t ever change)/ Don’t ever change now, baby (and thank you)/ And thank you (I don’t think we will meet again)...” PJ first met Radiohead’s Thom Yorke in the early ‘90s, and has said she always “loved and felt very moved by” his voice. She wrote This Mess We’re In with Thom in mind. “I’d long been interested in the idea of somebody else singing a whole song on a record of mine,

Rumour has it that the love songs on Stories ... were informed by PJ’s whirlwind romance with controversial filmmaker Vincent Gallo (director and star of 1998’s Buffalo ‘66 , with Christina Ricci). Vincent Gallo

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86 JUNE 2023

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