Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

by

PJ Harvey

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PJ Harvey's fifth album "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea" is the singer/songwriter's finest album and should please fans of her older albums and new fans alike. "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea" is somewhat slicker, less rough-around-the-edges than her other albums. I would recommend this album to start off with, as it is probably her most assessable work.

I personally feel that this album has her best collection of songs. From the opening rocker "Big Exit" to the beautiful "We Float," every song is a winner. There isn't any filler to be found. Each song is well written and memorable. It's a good mix of fast paced rockers, mid-tempo songs, and slower ones. The listener never gets bored. This CD deals with themes of love, relationships, etc, but never gets tedious or trite. Everything on this album is sincere and straight from the heart.

The album opens up strong with "Big Exit" an excellent rocker with a good, infectious hook. "Good Fortune" keeps up the momentum. "A Place Called Home" is a beautiful, somewhat morose, slower number whose enchanting background vocals stay with the listener long after the song has ended. The album slows down a bit for the next few songs. The mid-tempo "One Line" leads in perfectly to the dark, atmospheric "Beautiful Feeling." The pace is picked up with "The Whores Hustle, and the Hustlers Whore." "The Mess We're In" features a duet with Thom Yorke. Their overlapping vocals work nicely together. "You Said Something" is another softer number in the vein of "A Place Called Home," only slightly more upbeat. The pace picks up considerably with the excellent rockers "Kamikaze" and "This is Love." The album starts to wind down with the beautiful "Horses in my Dreams" The duel piano and guitar make "Horses in my Dreams" enchanting. The album ends with its' finest track, the majestic "We Float." The verse serves mostly to build up the song and it's mesmerizing chorus totally engulfs the listener.

If you don't own any PJ Harvey albums, this is a good place to start. It's a really good album and should please old and new fans alike.

Typically I would give any album five stars on the mere pretense of being created by Miss Harvey. Yet after her astonishing 1998 effort "Is This Desire?" and a batch of strong reviews lamenting this album a masterpiece I must admit to a degree of disappointment. The record starts splendidly with "Big Exit" (a rip-roaring journey into violence and dissatisfaction) "Good Fortune" (Chinatown, Little Italy, Bonnie and Clyde references) and "A Place Called Home" (the ghostly single) and settles into a discreet, soft groove. Songs such as "One Line," "Beautiful Feeling," "This Mess We're In," and "Horses In My Dreams" are lyrically and rhythmically interchangeable while "The Whores Hustle and The Hustler's Whore," "Kamikaze," "This Is Love," and "We Float," leave hints of a far more superior CD.