Track Listing

1. Big Exit
2. Good Fortune
3. A Place Called Home
4. One Line
5. Beautiful Feeling
6. The Whores Hustle and The Hustlers Whore
7. This Mess We're In
8. You Said Something
9. Kamikaze
10. This Is Love
11. Horses In My Dreams
12. We Float

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4657 in Music
• Published on: 2000
• Released on: 2000-10-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.com's Best of 2000
She may not break new ground with Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, but Polly Jean Harvey proves one thing: she sure knows how to tend to her plot. Hard-rocking, guitar-driven numbers, mesmerizing vocal wordplay, and plenty of noisy atmospherics prove that Harvey is still the queen of rock-noir. --Jason Verlinde

Amazon.com
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea--the sixth album from the most incendiary female British performer to emerge in the 1990s--is as powerful a record as any Polly Jean Harvey has made. Masterfully striking a balance between her blues-folk roots, avant-leanings, and soaring pop sensibility, it serves as a summary of Harvey's prior achievements. The abrasive, jagged guitars hark back to her fiery 1992 debut album, Dry, on the ballistic yet anthemic opener, "Big Exit," while the dreamy, opulent closer, "We Float," demonstrates her maturity as a songwriter. The clamor and emotional rush of a heady relationship--particularly on her duet with Thom Yorke, "This Mess We're In"--gives the album a ferocious clarity. The production skills of Mick Harvey (Nick Cave's Bad Seeds) lends depth and assurance. And, though PJ quotes from many influences--the Who, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, and even West Side Story--her indomitable presence shines throughout. Stories from the City is the work of a singular talent at the peak of her powers. --Gavin Martin

Album Description
UK standard edition of the eagerly anticipated fifth album for the critically acclaimed, alternative singer/songwriter. Includes one bonus track, 'This Wicked Tongue'. 2000 release. Standard jewel case.

Customer Reviews

CD
PJ has always been very avant guard. This cd is probably the least strange of all her stuff. Still, although I like it, it's not something I can listen to all the time.

Avid Listener
I was hesitant at first but after I listened to this CD I came to realize that every song is catchy and interesting. I listen to this CD every day.

P. J. Harvey's Finest Hour.
P. J. Harvey is an English songwriter who has performed as a solo artist since her 1993 release Rid of Me. Although many critics have frequently compared her to Patti Smith (a comparison which she dismisses as "lazy journalism"), Harvey says she was influenced mostly by Soft Cell, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, the Pixies, Television and Slint. Personally, I can hear the Patti Smith influences as well. (For instance, on Harvey's song "Horses In My Dreams," I can hear Smith's album Horses.) In concert she is known for her "Joan Crawford on acid" look: ballgowns, pink catsuits, wigs and garish, vampish make-up. With songs written in Dorset, Paris, and New York, Harvey's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea is her best album to date for several reasons. First, it features a duet with Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) on the track "This Mess We're In," as well as his backing vocals and keyboards fon the songs "One Line" and "Beautiful Feeling." Second, the album is more accessible than most of Harvey's other albums. The material here is uncharacteristically melodic, with pop-rock sounds fused with the gritty, thrashing, guitar-driven punk energy she is also known for on her other albums. Complete album setlist includes:

1. Big Exit (3:51)
2. Good Fortune (3:20)
3. A Place Called Home (3:42)
4. One Line (3:14)
5. Beautiful Feeling (4:00)
6. The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore (4:00)
7. The Mess We're In (3:57)
8. You Said Something (3:19)
9. Kamikaze (2:24)
10. This Is Love (3:48)
11. Horses In My Dreams (5:37)
12. We Float (6:09)

G. Merritt