Day 0992 - Let England Shake

P.J. Harvey "Let England Shake" (2011)

Harvey had pushed the boat out and away from her rock sound with previous album "White Chalk" where she wrote largely on the piano and singing in highest reaches of her vocal range.   For "Let England Shake" she again changed her approach, starting with words and letting the music come from that instead of the other way around. Harvey also composed quite a bit on autoharp, so again changing things up.

The album was recorded in a church with Harvey leaving a bit of space in the arrangements, giving her collaborators (including John Parish with whom she'd recorded some albums as a duo) the chance to have input into the final work.

The title track opens the album with busy bustle of strummed instruments and tinkly lead line on what might be xylophone.  It's melody seems akin to the more unsettling but beautiful sounds of "White Chalk".   The palm-muted sparse guitar of "The Last Living Rose" recalls Harvey's earlier work but still with a gentler folkier sound.

The lyrics dwell on England, death, war and diplomacy.    Alluding to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but with Harvey also having read up about Gallipoli and WWI in general.

The album isn't a terminal downer though.  There's some beauty there with the songs often taking on a pastoral, folky quality.   Elsewhere "The Words that Maketh Murder" almost has a hint of "Bird is the Word" by the Trashmen but with horns popping out to add colour and an interesting outro.

"Written on the Forehead" has almost ecstatic backing vocals.   Long-time collaborator (and sometime Bad Seed with Nick Cave) Mick Harvey shares vocal duties on the closing track "The Colour of the Earth".

Another daring and interesting album from Polly Jean, where she reaches outside of her comfort zone to create something that seems totally new for her, yet that also doesn't seem out of place in her body of work.

Day 0952 - Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus" (2004) - got it

 

I'm a big Nick Cave fan, but releasing a double album as a follow-up to the uncharacteristically lacklustre "Nocturama" did not seem like the best idea.   But, this seems to be a case of something I've talked about before, where artists can creatively fire up for a period of time (and should probably mine that vein while they can) but then fizzle out in others.   Nick Cave was definitely on fire here.

The first disc (Abattoir) is all power, opening with the crash of high power gospel rocker "Get Ready For Love" which I've always felt is about people missing out on everyday miracles because they're too busy waiting for 'a sign'.   The disc proceeds through grinding twisted blues rock in "Hiding Away", upbeat melodic rocking songs with "There She Goes My Beautiful World.   It is surprisingly short on fat ending on the uplifting "Let the Bells Ring" and then "Fable of the Brown Ape" that feels like it would fit nicely on 'Let Love Rule' next to a track like "Red Right Hand".

The second disc (Lyre) starts on a more sedate note with the unrelenting murder-folk of the title track.   A lighter folk informs the love songs "Breathless" and "Babe You Turn Me On" which features the gently murmured line "I put one hand on your round ripe heart, and the other down your panties".  Putting that line in a love song just seems to nicely sum up Cave's mix of the intimate/yearning and naughty/perverse.   "Supernaturally" is nicely propulsive piano-centred track and adds a little variety against the first few quieter tracks.   

This disc feels like maybe it could have lost a track and still been pretty good, but maybe the mellower sound was just less gripping than the bump and grind of Abattoir.   It starts and ends well at least.

This was the band's first album without guitarist Blixa Bargeld.  It would be unfair to lay the success of this album and the inadequacies of the previous release totally at Bargeld's door, but possibly removing one cook helped improve the broth?

Day 0911 - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

PJ Harvey “Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea” (2000) got it

 

PJ had been based in New York to do some acting work, wrote some songs and decided to live there for a time.   She was insistent that this was not her “New York album” but there is certainly a bit of a musical link to American alt-rock and punk.  In opening track “Big Exit” her vocal delivery sounds not unlike favourite NY son Lou Reed (though the drawl-meets-snarl vocal may just be Harvey’s own developing vocal style).  

Some of the lyrical content is definitely more American with “Something you Said’ listing off places and events in NY, and “Big Exit’s” gun fixation certainly sounds a lot more American than British.

The album has an overall more melodic and polished sound than PJ’s previous albums, though “This is Love” is still a fairly noisy rawk song that places swagger over sophistication.  Each verse consisting of a couple of repeated lines e.g.
“I can't believe that life's so complex
When I just want to sit here and watch you undress”.

Single “Good Fortune” has a nice folk-rock vibe to it and I think it was actually the first PJ Harvey song that I ever heard…. Well it was either that or “One time too many” from the (surprisingly good) “Batman Forever” soundtrack.

PJ continues to be an interesting musical force.  I’m slightly disappointed that the list doesn’t feature her “White Chalk” album where she challenged herself by switching to composing and recording on piano and singing in the upper reaches of her register.  The result was a beautiful yet uncomfortable listen.   She is well represented on the list though, so I can’t really complain.

Day 0848 - The Boatman's Call

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "The Boatman's Call" (1996) - got it

Cave had described the experience of making previous album "Murder Ballads" as 'a holiday'.   It was an album of twisted stories with gorgeous arrangements that Cave could lose himself in.   

"The Boatman's Call" is completely the opposite.   The cover once again features a picture of Cave, this time a bleak black and white rendering.   The songs are all painfully personal, alluding to breakups (Cave had recently divorced his wife and had a brief relationship with PJ Harvey), religion and a generally cold view of the word.   The Bad Seeds, responded to these songs with sparse arrangements (in some cases, just a piano backing Cave's deep croon) putting Cave even more in the burning spotlight.

The result though is a beautiful collection of songs that somehow manage to take pain and sadness and make something from it (like a rainbow after the fall if you want a trite analogy).   "Into my arms" may be one of the most beautiful songs written by anyone.   "Brompton Oratory" is a suitably hymn-like song for the church of the same name in London (I've been, it is a beautiful building).
"People Ain't No Good", "Where do we go but Nowhere" and "(Are You) the One That I've Been Waiting For" tell tales of heartbreak that almost seem to revel in the pain they're exorcising.

The next few Bad Seeds would move away from this kind of bare honesty back into a more narrative and sometimes character-driven form of writing, but this album is rightly held up as one of the best in the band's canon.

Day 0828 - Murder Ballads

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds "Murder Ballads" (1996) - got it

The album was a bit of change up for the Bad Seeds, with the change of a charming oil painting in place of the usual moody photograph of Cave on the album cover, through to the lyrics being completely narrative and non-autobiographical.

The album, which Cave has described as 'a holiday' had its genesis during the sessions for the "Henry's Dream" album, where the song "O'Malley's Bar" (the near-enough-to quarter hour penultimate track on Murder Ballads) was written.   The band felt it didn't fit on any of their albums, so created an album that would work for it.   Having said that, musically the album isn't a million miles from the gothic blues, folk and lounge stylings of their previous album "Let Love In".

Murder ballads are a subgenre within balladry, featuring songs that recount the gruesome details and sometimes aftermath of murderous deeds.   Cave launches into it with twisted glee, with a foul-mouthed account of the actions of one "Stagger Lee" at the Bucket of Blood Inn.   You can almost hear how much fun he's having as he assumes the role of the mass-murdering schoolgirl Loretta in the wild organ-driven song "the Curse of Milhaven".   

It's not all Cave by himself though, PJ Harvey guests on "Henry Lee" and wildcard Kylie Minogue duets with Cave on the beautifully cinematic "Where the Wild Roses Grow" which provided the band with an unlikely hit and adds a bit of colour amongst some of the low-key groove-based tracks.  On that note "Stagger Lee" is an interesting one in that it doesn't have verses and choruses, just the same groove repeated throughout the entire song (including the freakout section at the end).   

The album closes on what seems like a more positive note, with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Death is not the End" featuring guest vocal spots from Kylie, PJ, Shane Macgowan and members of the Bad Seeds.

Is it the best Bad Seeds' album?   Depends which day of the week you ask me.

Day 0745 - Rid of Me

 PJ Harvey "Rid of Me" (1993) 

 

Polly Jean and her eponymous trio had been touring hard on the back of their debut "Dry".  In the meantime, things weren't totally hunky dory for Harvey.  Her relationship had broken up and her place at a College of arts and design was no longer to be held for her.  PJ suffered a nervous breakdown.

That stress and angst comes out in these raw, howling tracks, mostly consisting solely of guitar, drums and vocals with occasional bass.   PJ chose punky, no-nonsense producer Steve Albini to helm the majority of the album.   Albini's unconventional placement of microphones created a drum sound that Harvey enthused sounded just like standing right in front of the drums.  

An odd duck on the album was "Man-sized (sextet)" with its discordant string arrangement.

PJ broke up the trio after this and moved onto recording as a solo artist.

Day 0733 - Dry

PJ Harvey "Dry" (1992)

Things that I learned doing this list - number... whatever:  PJ Harvey, like Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper, used to be the name of a band as well as its titular lead singer.

Polly Jean had been raised by parents who exposed her to different styles of music.  She'd played in the ensemble Bologne and the folk duo Polekats.  She contributed saxophone, guitar and backing vocals to the group Automatic Dlamini.   During that time she had been honing her own songwriting talents, until finally she was ready to start her own band, along with two members of Automatic Dlamini.

After two critically well-received singles, PJ Harvey released her/their first album.   The music is stripped-down, raw rock with PJ (the person) hissing, howling, wailing and growling over the top.  There's noisy guitar, there are parts that are just stripped down to bass and vocals, but it doesn't just sound like indie-rock, you get a feeling that some of PJ's other musical background in folk, pop and jazz are floating around just below the surface.

The album laid down the gauntlet that has seen PJ (MBE)(the person) take up and maintain 'musical icon' status.

Day 0731 - Henry's Dream

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds "Henry's Dream" (1992) - got it

After internal conflicts, the Birthday Party broke up.  Members Nick Cave and Mick Harvey put together a pretty impressive collection of talent with Barry Adamson, Blixa Bargeld (Einstürzende Neubauten) and JG Thirwell (Foetus, Steroid Maximus, Manorexia etc.).  The line-up eventually pared down somewhat and started cranking out the albums, evolving towards the Bad Seeds' particular blend of delta-blues, murder ballads and goth-gospel.

"Henry's Dream" was their seventh release.  Reportedly Cave didn't enjoy the recording process for it himself, but the result is pretty arresting.   It's like some giant apocalyptic catastrophe hits during the pulsing, unrelenting acoustic first track, with its dark imagery building to include "lynch mobs/death squads/babies being born without brains".  In the aftermath of this event there are those cracked, dry and broken ("Brother my cup is empty"), wandering around the world ("When I first came to town"), but there is also the chance for redeeming love ("Straight to you").

I love the bad seeds, but I have to say that a few of their albums (this one included) tend to lag a bit towards the end.  I find the last couple of tracks to be less interesting than what has preceded them.  Not bad, just not up to the standard of the rest of the album.

Day 0509 - Junkyard

The Birthday Party "Junkyard" (1982)

The wild, rabid Aussie band had made the move to the UK.  Based on acts such as the Fall, they assumed that they would find a music scene full of kindred spirits; but instead found a country well in the grip of new-wave, new romanticism and various other 'news'.

They did find supporters in England for the turbulent last year or so of their existence (in an already turbulent life... the band used to take hard drugs, and steal cars, amongst other things).  Drugs, alcohol, in-fighting all the usual band noise plagued this punky, demented murder-blues band, before Nick Cave left to start up his new gothy murder-blues band.

The songs on this, their last album, are as buck-wild and bare-backed as anything they ever worked on, with the songs being clamorous enough in places that you could imagine that each member was working on a totally different song.  Working 'against' rather than 'with' each other, but  somehow still working.