The quiet ones are always the scariest. Polly Jean Harvey's appearance on the cover of White Chalk -- all wild black hair and ghostly white dress -- could replace the dictionary definition of eerie, and the album itself plays like a good ghost story. It's haunted by British folk, steeped in Gothic romance and horror, and almost impossible to get out of your head, despite (but really because of) how unsettling it becomes. White Chalk is Harvey's darkest album yet -- which, considering that she's sung about dismembering a lover and drowning her daughter, is saying something. It's also one of her most beautiful albums, inspired by the fragility and timelessness of chalk lines and her relative newness to the piano, which dominates White Chalk; it gives "Before Departure" funereal heft and "Grow Grow Grow" a witchy sparkle befitting its incantations. Most striking of all, however, is Harvey's voice: she sings most of White Chalk in a high, keening voice somewhere between a whisper and a whimper. She sounds like a wraith or a lost child, terrifyingly so on "The Mountain," where she breaks the tension with a spine-tingling shriek just before the album ends. This frail persona is almost unrecognizable as the woman who snarled about being a 50-foot queenie -- yet few artists challenge themselves to change their sound as much as she does, so paradoxically, it's a quintessentially PJ Harvey move. The album does indeed sound timeless, or at least, not modern. White Chalk took five months to record with Harvey's longtime collaborators Flood, John Parish, and Eric Drew Feldman, but these somber, cloistered songs sound like they could be performed in a parlor, or channeled via Ouija board. There is hardly any guitar (and certainly nothing as newfangled as electric guitar) besides the acoustic strumming on the beautifully chilly title track, which could pass for an especially gloomy traditional British folk song. Lyrics like "The Devil"'s "Come here at once! All my being is now in pining" could be written by one of the Brontë sisters. On a deeper level, White Chalk feels like a freshly unearthed relic because it runs so deep and dark. Harvey doesn't just capture isolation and anguish; she makes fear, regret, and loneliness into entities. In these beautiful and almost unbearably intimate songs, darkness is a friend, silence is an enemy, and a piano is a skeleton with broken teeth and twitching red tongues. "When Under Ether" offers a hallucinatory escape from some horrible reality -- quite possibly abortion, since unwanted children are some of the many broken family ties that haunt the album -- and this is White Chalk's single. What makes the album even more intriguing is that it doesn't really have much in common with the work of Harvey's contemporaries (although Joanna Newsom's Ys and Scott Walker's The Drift come to mind, mostly for their artistic fearlessness) or even her own catalog. It rivals Dance Hall at Louse Point for its willingness to challenge listeners, but it's far removed from Uh Huh Her, which was arguably more listenable but a lot less remarkable. In fact, this may be Harvey's most undiluted album yet. When she's at the peak of her powers, as she is on this frightening yet fearless album, the world she creates is impossible to forget, or shake off easily. White Chalk can make you shiver on a sunny day.
When I declaim about the state of rock music I need to remind myself that there are many diamonds in the rough and of course one of the brightest (and darkest) is Polly Jean Harvey. I haven't had chance to hear the whole album 'White Chalk' yet but the UK's Observer is one of many places it is getting rave reviews: "It's bleak, lacks guitars and is sung in an odd voice. So what makes this piano...
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Well, I have just been listening to the new PJ Harvey album, White Chalk. Below, a few impressions.The first is the album artwork. Which I like very much. Pared-down, tasteful, attention-grabbing, unpretentious. And I am an unashamed doter upon uncoated card (rough, textured, matt).With the opening track, the first thing I think of - curiously, and rather unexpectedly - is the The Beach Boys. I...
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In an effort to keep my word about "being back" and to not let other things going on in my life get in the way of this, I thought I'd post about an album I heard earlier this week. It was Thursday when the leaked version of Polly Jean's new album, White Chalk, started spreading through the music blogs like wildfire. The album releases on 9/25 here in the States and 24/9 in the UK. I was a bi...
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Not what I expected but the song is lovely and that's all that matters. You all have a lovely Sunday now.
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PJ Harvey released a new video for "The Piano"(below) her second single off of ??White Chalk??(Island), her eighth studio album released September 24 in US.Harvey has also posted on her Myspace a documentary focusing on her recent works. In it, we get a glimpse at what goes through the mind of this enduring icon of ??under the radar?? popular music.AndWatch PJ Harvey perform live during her upc...
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Get Shot and RotPerpetrated by Mog Agent Joxley I must say I was suspicious of that city slicker wandering around my fields in his tux but soon lost interest as I bent down to examine my crops. My cauliflower had been infested with a particularly bad case of cabbage maggot and I fully intended to cure them of this particular pestilence. The sun hung low in the sky, the last heat of the day ...
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I posted about this a couple of months ago...here's how it all came out.New Ground: An Interview with PJ Harvey[28 November 2007]by Jennifer KellyPJ Harvey talks to PopMatters about her haunting new album, learning piano by ear, limitless imagination, and why she decided to do a string of solo shows to bring White Chalk to her fans.Over the last decade and a half, PJ Harvey has amassed one of r...
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A few moggers have been diligently adding songs to MOG from PJ Harvey's new album White Chalk, so you may have heard much of it already. You can now listen to the entire album as it streams on Spinner this week. Other full albums that you can stream there include Magic by Bruce Springsteen, 100 Days 100 Nights by Sharon Jones and the Dap Tones, Mick Jagger, Kevin Michael and about 9 more. If...
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As featured on BBC 6 Radio. Piano-driven, fragile, beautiful, with no guitar. The upcoming album White Chalk might turn out to divide fan opinion.
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The eagerly awaited PJ Harvey album White Chalk will be released in the U.S. on September 25, Pitchfork reports."When under ether/ The mind comes alive/ But conscious of nothing/ But the will to survive."The album will be preceded by a single, the piano-driven and quite mysterious "When Under Ether," which will be released in England September 17. The single has already been aired on the BBC, a...
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In an effort to keep my word about "being back" and to not let other things going on in my life get in the way of this, I thought I'd post about an album I heard earlier this week. It was Thursday when the leaked version of Polly Jean's new album, White Chalk, started spreading through the music blogs like wildfire. The album releases on 9/25 here in the States and 24/9 in the UK. I was a bi...
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I had no idea that I love the sound of the "mellotron":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron. Turns out It plays a part in a bunch of songs I have loved for years, like The Court of King Crimson, The Left Banke's music, and most recently tracks in PJ Harvey's new haunting (and I really mean haunting, people!) record. I seriously love what I've heard so far, it gives me the chills, in a good way.
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PJ Harvey has confirmed two exclusive one-off U.S. shows in support of her upcoming album White Chalk (Island).The shows will take place at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on October 10th and The Orpheum in Los Angeles on October 15th and will feature the U.S. live debut of material from ??White Chalk?? as well as material spanning PJ Harvey's career.??White Chalk?? is a departure from prev...
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Well, I have just been listening to the new PJ Harvey album, White Chalk. Below, a few impressions.The first is the album artwork. Which I like very much. Pared-down, tasteful, attention-grabbing, unpretentious. And I am an unashamed doter upon uncoated card (rough, textured, matt).With the opening track, the first thing I think of - curiously, and rather unexpectedly - is the The Beach Boys. I...
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I was thinking about all the concerts I've seen and thinking about putting together a list (at least the ones I can remember) and posting it here. That got me to thinking of all the different types of music that I have liked over my lifetime. That brought me to start looking up some music that I may have enjoyed in passing but never made my mixtapes, top ten or desert island lists.PJ Harvey was...
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PJ Harvey will release her seven studio album and follow-up to 2004's Uh Huh Her in September. The album will be called White Chalk and includes Harvey's collaborators Eric Drew Feldman and Jim White from the Australian post-rock band The Dirty Three. Harvey went back to the studio with producers Flood and John Parish, who also worked on 1995's To Bring You My Love and 1998's Is This Desire?.PJ...
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Song #2 of the new album. If you like it, i ask you to support PJ and buy the album. Dear darknessDear darkenssWon't you cover, cover me again?Dear darkness, dearI've been your friend for many years.Won't you do this for me, Dearest DarknessAnd cover me from the sunAnd the words tighteningThe words are tightening Around my throat and, andAround the throat of the one I loveTightening, tightening...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 The Devil |
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| 2 Dear Darkness |
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| 3 Grow Grow Grow |
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| 4 When Under Ether |
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| 5 White Chalk |
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| 6 Broken Harp |
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| 7 Silence |
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| 8 To Talk to You |
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| 9 The Piano |
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| 10 Before Departure |
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| 11 The Mountain |
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Click to purchase…
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 "White Chalk")
