Dry

by

PJ Harvey

Edit

I bought this cassette when it came out in 1992. I had long ago worn out the cassette. I just recently purchased the CD's to all her music, man I have missed it.

PJ Harvey is a powerful singer, song writer and musician. This CD is not for someone expecting happy, sappy love songs or a tame beat.

She exudes a raw, feminine, tough, and sometime comical outlook in her songs. She holds nothing back.

Each song is an experience.

Oh My Lover: she sings to her lover "You can love her and you can love me at the same time, much to discover." Not only is this song sexual, it's also pretty emotional to me. She asks him to "take at your leisure, take whatever you can find." Then she almost pleads with him to say her name and offers to take on his troubles. To me this song always represented a woman willing to go to the extreme to please her man, to keep him.

Dress: this is a really fast, upbeat song. But the lyrics are kind of sad. She's lonely and gets all dressed up and tries to get male attention. It reminds me of all the uncomfortable stuff we do trying to attract the opposite sex. At the end of the song, she's still alone.

Happy and Bleeding: I always took this song to be a celebration of a woman's amazing body and its capabilities. Whether or not that is the correct interpretation, I have no idea. "...fruit flower myself inside out, I'm happy and bleeding for you."

Sheela-Na-Gig: if you have never seen a Sheela-Na-Gig, you need to look one up in order to fully appreciate this song. This is one of the songs I feel she takes a more 'comical' approach. She is showing off her child bearing hips and other assorted 'assets' while her 'partner' is accusing her of exhibitionism. All the while she professes to find a new man. At one point he asks her to clean her "dirty pillows" because he doesn't want to be unclean.

Fountain: I always thought this song was beautiful. She starts it off by standing under a fountain and washing away a man. Then another man comes and saves her, only to leave her like the other one did. The beat starts off slow and then builds.

That's just a few of the songs on this CD and each one is remarkable in its own right. I will never tire of this CD, its music or its lyrics. PJ Harvey is in a class by herself.

Maybe it was becuase of the hype (most P.J. Harvey fans would probably consider this album her "best"), maybe it was because I was blown away by "Stories from the City", but for whatever reason, "Dry" did absolutely nothing for me. Some of the songs are good, if only for P.J's candor about sexuality. (O Stella, Happy and Bleeding, etc.) Fair warning to those expecting more catchy, radio-friendly melodies like those from "Stories" should be warned because this album simply doesn't have them, with the notable exception of Sheela-Na-Gig. The 3 stars were given because 1)its P.J. Harvey and 2)some of the lyrics and again with the honesty. Overall, I would say download a few of the songs first to see if this is your cup of tea. Needless to say it wasn't mine. After having the album for a week I sold it.