PJ Harvey, White Chalk (Island Records-2007)
I have always enjoyed all of the output that PJ Harvey has done and also loved her side projects with John Parrish (Check out 2009s A Woman A Man Walked By). But this album commands respect from me.
Not simply just a good album to me but as someone who plays musical instruments I have to respect how she really went out of her comfort zone on this album. A very risky thing to do. Away with the classic drum, bass and guitar band set up and move onto learning new instruments from scratch. Also add in a real change in vocal style and you have the makings of what could be a bad album.
But what did happen is Harvey committed herself as much as she could to the piano and other instruments to gain just what she needed to write an album. Now she can call herself a multi instrumentalist with credits outside of guitars including zither, harmonica, harp and cigfiddle.
How does it all sound? Well it is a simple album as you really can't do that much in a studio all on your own. But it is well done and written so well. She really evolved her songwriting skills here. "The Devil" has the blueprint for this album. Simple piano chords and her voice singing just a little too much higher than she may like. But it seems to work. The harmonies help to give the music stability but they are rarely used showing her control of the sound so well. Any producer would have put many on this to fill it up.
Second track 'Dear Darkness' has bleakness at the heart. The music is moving and also very gloomy so not one to play on a summers day at a BBQ. 'When Under Ether' is a real stand out track telling story of an unborn child, no reason given from what I can hear. Very much a thinking album. Title song and again another highlight 'White Chalk' makes you wonder why you have this on at all. But nice little acoustic passages and her voice convince you this is well worth the listen.
This album was made with much the same people as all her others but it really does sound that much removed from her past albums. Many artists try to do this and fail very badly, this album back when it came out made some new fans but I do remember fans being split on this one. Even her live performance was changed dramatically with PJ removing the traditional band format even from the live performance. Wearing a Victorian style, full length dress and playing many of the instruments live while sitting down is as close to folk you can get. It was more of a one woman show, but simply so much different than the busker you cross the street to get away from.
The album was a hit in the UK and sold ok but really it should have been bigger and people know that. The next album was four years away and on a similar style as this and BANG! people got it, Mercury Prize winner and praise that should have happened in 2007. So people were a little late, so what but those who were late missed out on a better album.
White Chalk is easily available on CD and LP from Amazon
Twitter: 29xthefun
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