PJ Harvey albums ranked
With her having released a new album this month, now's a good time to do another ranking on her music. Like several other artists I've done album rankings on, Polly Jean Harvey has no bad albums. All her stuff is good, it's just a matter of how good. I will not be including her two collaborative albums with John Parish or any of her demo albums. Core studio albums only.
10. The Hope Six Demolition Project
Harvey's most politically charged record yet. Critics were hard on her for that, calling The Hope Six Demolition Project over-politicized. While it may be a bit uncharacteristic of her, my issue with this album is that the music just doesn't resonate that well with me. Save for two songs ("The Wheel" and "The Orange Monkey") it just isn't that memorable. Perhaps that's a result of its political nature - she's putting the message of the song over the strength of the music. I can't say it's uninspired since Harvey drew inspiration from her travels to Washington DC, Kosovo and Afghanistan, but I can't say it's one of her better albums either. Hope Six is ambitious, like nearly all of PJ Harvey's albums, but sadly, it's the closest to mediocrity she's ever gotten.
Highlights: "The Orange Monkey", "The Wheel"
9. Uh Huh Her
After recreating her first commercial breakthrough of To Bring You My Love with Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, Peej decides to do the unexpected and make an album that's the complete opposite of its predecessor. Uh Huh Her sees Harvey going back to basics by doing an album that's completely self-produced from the raw production to her playing nearly every instrument! It contains jabs at critics with songs like "Who The Fuсk?", "The Letter" and even a filler track "Seagulls". But it also has highlights like "Shame", "The Pocket Knife" and "It's You". Uh Huh Her is far from Harvey's best, but I believe that was the point. It was meant to show that no matter how much mainstream success she gets, she'll never lose the rebellious angst from her earlier years. Even if she has to risk career suіcide to prove it.
Highlights: "Shame", "The Letter", "It's You", "The Pocket Knife"
8. White Chalk
The first and so far, the only record from Harvey that forsakes rock completely. Although I'm more partial to her rock-driven material, White Chalk is something she pulled off rather well. And this was something meant to challenge herself by making an album centered around her singing higher than she usually does while also being piano-driven despite her knowing very little about pianos at the time. It's her shortest album at 33 minutes in length, but it also manages to be her most haunting; somehow more so than the songs she made before about mutilation and infanticide! It has some of the most chilling but also the most gorgeous music she's done in songs like "When Under Ether", "The Devil", "The Piano", the title track and "Broken Harp". White Chalk is a somewhat atypical album from Harvey and it's understandable why it's one of her lesser-known works, but it's still fine album that deserves some attention.
Highlights: "The Devil", "White Chalk", "The Piano", "When Under Ether"
7. Is This Desire?
PJ Harvey's close to the '90s with Is This Desire? saw her flirt with electronica and trip-hop, the end result easily being her funkiest release to date. Harvey has named this one as the best album she's ever made. Obviously, I wouldn't go that far, but it's still an excellent record full of variety. You get vintage Peej like "Angelene" and "A Perfect Day Elise", you get slow numbers "Catherine" and "Electric Light" and then you get otherworldly vibes with "The Wind" and "The Garden". Some consider it the black sheep of her discography for its electronic influences, but I think that was an excellent touch that injected the songs with plenty of energy. Also, its PJ Harvey! She does something different with almost every album, her flock is nothing but black sheep! Again, I'm in disagreement with the woman herself on this being her best, but one could argue it's her most creative and for that much, it deserves plenty of praise.
Highlights: "The Wind", "Angelene", "A Perfect Day Elise", "The Garden"
6. Dry
The debut album by PJ Harvey and the first of two by the original PJ Harvey trio featuring herself, Steve Vaughan and Rob Ellis. Dry and its follow-up Rid of Me are the only two PJ Harvey that share a similar style. While she would immediately top it with Rid of Me, Dry is still a great kick-off to her career that instantly put her on the map. It's not as energetic as the music she would make after, but it still carries plenty of her old school in-your-face attitude. It has some of her best songs like "O Stella", "Dress" and "Sheela-Na-Gig" and also some of her more somber but powerful ballads like "Happy and Bleeding" and "Plants and Rags". Dry had critics comparing Harvey to the riot grrrl movement and heavier groups like Babes in Toyland and L7, but none of them did her any favors. Since the very beginning, PJ Harvey was in a league of her own.
Highlights: "Dress", "Sheela-Na-Gig", "O Stella", Happy and Bleeding"
5. I Inside the Old year Dying
The most recent album from PJ Harvey sees her reunite with two longtime collaborators Flood and John Parish serving as producers alongside her. After seven years - the longest the Peej has ever gone without releasing an album - we get I Inside the Old year Dying, a haunting and enigmatic record that almost mirrors the style of White Chalk. It's not quite as soft or baroque as that record, but it is one of her more mellower albums, with vibes that alternate between dreamy and mesmerizing to eerie and chilling. As mentioned earlier, I do prefer her more rock-driven albums, but whenever PJ Harvey does go softer, she's usually able to execute pretty well and this is the probably the best she's done it! The toning down could be a sign of her age, but so long as she keeps making music like this, you won't find me complaining. Because with I Inside the Old year Dying, Harvey has proven she still do a record that's one of her best at her age.
Highlights: "I Inside the Old I Dying", "A Child's Question, August", "Lonesome Tonight", "Autumn Term", "The Nether-edge", "Prayer at the Gate"
4. Let England Shake
When the 2000's saw PJ Harvey release some of her least-loved albums, some might've thought she would never see critical acclaim ever again. If so, you can bet this album utterly shook them (pun intended) as Harvey proved she's still very much a force to be reckoned with! Let England Shake is undoubtedly Harvey's most critically successful album and for good reason - it features some of the best songwriting she's ever done! It's more folk-oriented than her previous music, but the sound suits the subject matter of the album's themes - exploring the grim realities of war that have been instrumental in shaping her home country. While it may not be my favorite album from her, it's hard to name another so rife with masterfully-written lyrics as Let England Shake is. It has quite the number of highlights, as you'll read below. Perhaps an abundance, even. But that goes to show how excellent Let England Shake is.
Highlights: "Let England Shake", "The Glorious Land", "The Last Living Rose", "All & Everyone", "The Words That Maketh Murder", "Written on the Forehead"
3. To Bring You My Love
This marks PJ Harvey's commercial breakthrough and the first true album that sees her as a solo artist. To Bring You My Love sees Polly Harvey reinventing herself by starting something that she would do with every album from that point on: never repeating herself by doing something different for each one. This one has her drawing influence from blues while the songs are more emotional in nature rather than angry. Some call this watered-down from Dry and Rid of Me, but I don't agree with that sentiment. Its lyrics are far darker and its music much more complex. Sure it's more accessible, but that's really the only thing watered-down about it. It's almost as if it was her way of saying she might not be as heavy, but she's no sell-out either. In addition to holding Harvey's most popular hit "Down By The Water", it has other great tracks like the title track, "C'mon Billy", "The Dancer", "Send His Love To Me" and "Long Snake Moan". To Bring You My Love is a landmark in Harvey's career for landing her in the spotlight and stands as one of her best.
Highlights: "Down By The Water", "C'mon Billy", "Send His Love to Me", "To Bring You My Love", "The Dancer", "Meet Ze Monster", "Long Snake Moan"
2. Rid of Me
The second and last album by the original PJ Harvey trio. Rid of Me is, hands down, the most ferocious record the Peej has ever dished out. It's an exhilarating onslaught of aggression and raunchiness that showed Harvey had bigger bаlls than most of the men that dominated alternative rock's golden age! It's chock full of hard-hitting numbers, many of which are her best, like "50ft Queenie" (my favorite PJ Harvey song), "Yuri-G", "Rub 'Till It Bleeds", "Man-Size", and "Me-Jane". It's almost too bad that this ended up being the last by the original trio before they disbanded, which most certainly led to Harvey's shift in musical direction that followed, because we never got to see her do another album quite like Rid of Me again. But maybe it's better that we didn't. While she did make one other album that topped this one, I doubt she could have done so with the same seething ferocity we see here.
Highlights: "50ft Queenie", "Man-Size", "Yuri-G", "Rub 'Till it Bleeds", "Me-Jane", "Snake", "Rid of Me"
1. Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
This is the most upbeat and polished record by Polly Jean Harvey. After seeing me praise how angsty and different she can be throughout this post, why would I choose this as my top-ranked album of hers? Because I believe it's her most passionate one. Stemming from her affection for New York City, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea is full of love and ambition. Rather than dark themes involving heartbreak, we hear a lovestruck Harvey giving us uplifting vibes for a change. The pop-oriented style and crisp production is a reflection of the care put into it. This album is just full of excellent tunes as well! Just to name a handful: "This Is Love", "Good Fortune", "Big Exit", "The Mess We're In", "A Place Called Home" and "We Float". It's like the albums before were her soul-searching and Stories... is her having finally found herself. This makes it somewhat bittersweet since she hasn't made another album nearly as upbeat as this one, and she may never again! If so, it's sad that the happiness we here from this album was only fleeting, but at least she was able to give us one of her best; or as this fan feels: her absolute finest.
Highlights: the whole album
Thanks for reading!
Harvey's most politically charged record yet. Critics were hard on her for that, calling The Hope Six Demolition Project over-politicized. While it may be a bit uncharacteristic of her, my issue with this album is that the music just doesn't resonate that well with me. Save for two songs ("The Wheel" and "The Orange Monkey") it just isn't that memorable. Perhaps that's a result of its political nature - she's putting the message of the song over the strength of the music. I can't say it's uninspired since Harvey drew inspiration from her travels to Washington DC, Kosovo and Afghanistan, but I can't say it's one of her better albums either. Hope Six is ambitious, like nearly all of PJ Harvey's albums, but sadly, it's the closest to mediocrity she's ever gotten.
Highlights: "The Orange Monkey", "The Wheel"
After recreating her first commercial breakthrough of To Bring You My Love with Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, Peej decides to do the unexpected and make an album that's the complete opposite of its predecessor. Uh Huh Her sees Harvey going back to basics by doing an album that's completely self-produced from the raw production to her playing nearly every instrument! It contains jabs at critics with songs like "Who The Fuсk?", "The Letter" and even a filler track "Seagulls". But it also has highlights like "Shame", "The Pocket Knife" and "It's You". Uh Huh Her is far from Harvey's best, but I believe that was the point. It was meant to show that no matter how much mainstream success she gets, she'll never lose the rebellious angst from her earlier years. Even if she has to risk career suіcide to prove it.
Highlights: "Shame", "The Letter", "It's You", "The Pocket Knife"
The first and so far, the only record from Harvey that forsakes rock completely. Although I'm more partial to her rock-driven material, White Chalk is something she pulled off rather well. And this was something meant to challenge herself by making an album centered around her singing higher than she usually does while also being piano-driven despite her knowing very little about pianos at the time. It's her shortest album at 33 minutes in length, but it also manages to be her most haunting; somehow more so than the songs she made before about mutilation and infanticide! It has some of the most chilling but also the most gorgeous music she's done in songs like "When Under Ether", "The Devil", "The Piano", the title track and "Broken Harp". White Chalk is a somewhat atypical album from Harvey and it's understandable why it's one of her lesser-known works, but it's still fine album that deserves some attention.
Highlights: "The Devil", "White Chalk", "The Piano", "When Under Ether"
PJ Harvey's close to the '90s with Is This Desire? saw her flirt with electronica and trip-hop, the end result easily being her funkiest release to date. Harvey has named this one as the best album she's ever made. Obviously, I wouldn't go that far, but it's still an excellent record full of variety. You get vintage Peej like "Angelene" and "A Perfect Day Elise", you get slow numbers "Catherine" and "Electric Light" and then you get otherworldly vibes with "The Wind" and "The Garden". Some consider it the black sheep of her discography for its electronic influences, but I think that was an excellent touch that injected the songs with plenty of energy. Also, its PJ Harvey! She does something different with almost every album, her flock is nothing but black sheep! Again, I'm in disagreement with the woman herself on this being her best, but one could argue it's her most creative and for that much, it deserves plenty of praise.
Highlights: "The Wind", "Angelene", "A Perfect Day Elise", "The Garden"
The debut album by PJ Harvey and the first of two by the original PJ Harvey trio featuring herself, Steve Vaughan and Rob Ellis. Dry and its follow-up Rid of Me are the only two PJ Harvey that share a similar style. While she would immediately top it with Rid of Me, Dry is still a great kick-off to her career that instantly put her on the map. It's not as energetic as the music she would make after, but it still carries plenty of her old school in-your-face attitude. It has some of her best songs like "O Stella", "Dress" and "Sheela-Na-Gig" and also some of her more somber but powerful ballads like "Happy and Bleeding" and "Plants and Rags". Dry had critics comparing Harvey to the riot grrrl movement and heavier groups like Babes in Toyland and L7, but none of them did her any favors. Since the very beginning, PJ Harvey was in a league of her own.
Highlights: "Dress", "Sheela-Na-Gig", "O Stella", Happy and Bleeding"
The most recent album from PJ Harvey sees her reunite with two longtime collaborators Flood and John Parish serving as producers alongside her. After seven years - the longest the Peej has ever gone without releasing an album - we get I Inside the Old year Dying, a haunting and enigmatic record that almost mirrors the style of White Chalk. It's not quite as soft or baroque as that record, but it is one of her more mellower albums, with vibes that alternate between dreamy and mesmerizing to eerie and chilling. As mentioned earlier, I do prefer her more rock-driven albums, but whenever PJ Harvey does go softer, she's usually able to execute pretty well and this is the probably the best she's done it! The toning down could be a sign of her age, but so long as she keeps making music like this, you won't find me complaining. Because with I Inside the Old year Dying, Harvey has proven she still do a record that's one of her best at her age.
Highlights: "I Inside the Old I Dying", "A Child's Question, August", "Lonesome Tonight", "Autumn Term", "The Nether-edge", "Prayer at the Gate"
When the 2000's saw PJ Harvey release some of her least-loved albums, some might've thought she would never see critical acclaim ever again. If so, you can bet this album utterly shook them (pun intended) as Harvey proved she's still very much a force to be reckoned with! Let England Shake is undoubtedly Harvey's most critically successful album and for good reason - it features some of the best songwriting she's ever done! It's more folk-oriented than her previous music, but the sound suits the subject matter of the album's themes - exploring the grim realities of war that have been instrumental in shaping her home country. While it may not be my favorite album from her, it's hard to name another so rife with masterfully-written lyrics as Let England Shake is. It has quite the number of highlights, as you'll read below. Perhaps an abundance, even. But that goes to show how excellent Let England Shake is.
Highlights: "Let England Shake", "The Glorious Land", "The Last Living Rose", "All & Everyone", "The Words That Maketh Murder", "Written on the Forehead"
This marks PJ Harvey's commercial breakthrough and the first true album that sees her as a solo artist. To Bring You My Love sees Polly Harvey reinventing herself by starting something that she would do with every album from that point on: never repeating herself by doing something different for each one. This one has her drawing influence from blues while the songs are more emotional in nature rather than angry. Some call this watered-down from Dry and Rid of Me, but I don't agree with that sentiment. Its lyrics are far darker and its music much more complex. Sure it's more accessible, but that's really the only thing watered-down about it. It's almost as if it was her way of saying she might not be as heavy, but she's no sell-out either. In addition to holding Harvey's most popular hit "Down By The Water", it has other great tracks like the title track, "C'mon Billy", "The Dancer", "Send His Love To Me" and "Long Snake Moan". To Bring You My Love is a landmark in Harvey's career for landing her in the spotlight and stands as one of her best.
Highlights: "Down By The Water", "C'mon Billy", "Send His Love to Me", "To Bring You My Love", "The Dancer", "Meet Ze Monster", "Long Snake Moan"
The second and last album by the original PJ Harvey trio. Rid of Me is, hands down, the most ferocious record the Peej has ever dished out. It's an exhilarating onslaught of aggression and raunchiness that showed Harvey had bigger bаlls than most of the men that dominated alternative rock's golden age! It's chock full of hard-hitting numbers, many of which are her best, like "50ft Queenie" (my favorite PJ Harvey song), "Yuri-G", "Rub 'Till It Bleeds", "Man-Size", and "Me-Jane". It's almost too bad that this ended up being the last by the original trio before they disbanded, which most certainly led to Harvey's shift in musical direction that followed, because we never got to see her do another album quite like Rid of Me again. But maybe it's better that we didn't. While she did make one other album that topped this one, I doubt she could have done so with the same seething ferocity we see here.
Highlights: "50ft Queenie", "Man-Size", "Yuri-G", "Rub 'Till it Bleeds", "Me-Jane", "Snake", "Rid of Me"
This is the most upbeat and polished record by Polly Jean Harvey. After seeing me praise how angsty and different she can be throughout this post, why would I choose this as my top-ranked album of hers? Because I believe it's her most passionate one. Stemming from her affection for New York City, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea is full of love and ambition. Rather than dark themes involving heartbreak, we hear a lovestruck Harvey giving us uplifting vibes for a change. The pop-oriented style and crisp production is a reflection of the care put into it. This album is just full of excellent tunes as well! Just to name a handful: "This Is Love", "Good Fortune", "Big Exit", "The Mess We're In", "A Place Called Home" and "We Float". It's like the albums before were her soul-searching and Stories... is her having finally found herself. This makes it somewhat bittersweet since she hasn't made another album nearly as upbeat as this one, and she may never again! If so, it's sad that the happiness we here from this album was only fleeting, but at least she was able to give us one of her best; or as this fan feels: her absolute finest.
Highlights: the whole album
Thanks for reading!
