Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

Having a thom yorke feature on your album that is basically just a thom yorke song, and also have it be the best song on the album is certainly a choice

I did enjoy this more than the last PJ album that came up on the list

3.5

An album being generated by this lady is just like a dentist appointment, I knew the day was coming but I tried to forget about it. I have heard a fair bit of this artist’s work as my bro is a big fan but it just doesn’t do anything for me. As I started listening this view was validated but then I heard “The Whores Bundle” which was wonderful and the “Mess We are In” with Thom Yorke was absolutely lovely, the spoken word bits sounding very much like the Tindersticks. Closing track “We Float” was nice too. Now I am actually interested to hear more.

Als ik het album aanzet denk ik kort een aflevering van Friends te krijgen. Tot mevrouw licht punk-schreeuwt om een vuurwapen. Het woordje 'licht' is wel een belangrijk woordje in de vorige zin. We kennen mevrouw van de zogenaamd kunstzinnige uitspattingen. Die vallen op dit album heel erg mee. Maar deze uithalen, als in A place called home hebben warempel een muzikale waarde. Wiki meldt over dit album dan ook dat dit wel een commercieel succes was. Overigens was er volgens wiki zelfs een eerder album van PJ, dat ook gewaardeerd werd door de luisteraar. Ik neem aan dat we dát album niet voorgeschoteld krijgen. Nóg een luisterbare plaat van deze mevrouw lijkt mij veel van het goede...

How does she have several albums on this list? There's just nothing essential about any of this. Clumsy lyrics, extremely generic music, very limited vocals. This time we get an atrocious collaboration with the Radiohead guy. Bleh.

AAAAAAA!!! I’ve been waiting!! I always thought I would like this, and today I found out that in fact…! It’s fine. The persona is a little bit irritating, a lot of the album doesn’t feel like it’s bringing enough to the table. That being said, the heights, such as “Big Exit,” “A Place Called Home,” “Horses In My Dreams,” et cetera, all make up for that. The production overall is nice, if nothing too phenomenal. The vocals are a bit of an acquired taste, but really good if you can get behind them. Pretty much everything’s great, except for the general persona of the album, which I personally can’t personally find a way to enjoy or relate to. Not saying it’s bad. It just doesn’t connect to me in that way. Also, a lot of the songwriting (especially on songs such as “This Mess We’re In” or “You Said Something”) is just a bit too vague for me to really like it much. All this being said it’s a very nice album.
7.9/10

*Strong lyrics but this mostly felt like mumbling over a grunge guitar
*To be fair, this is not a favorite genre of mine anyway

She had a great band when she toured this one. It's a shame she doesn't do live albums. I've got a great bootleg of her singing The Fall's Janet + Johnny + James from around then, maybe the next album.

I like the uncharacteristic shiny simple production on this, as an excursion - everything she does is an excursion, but overall I don't think the songs quite match up to her best. This really becomes apparent when The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore hits because it is just so great.

The Good: Who doesn’t like stories?
The Bad: What if we don’t like The City, or The Sea?
The Ugly: The looming uncertainty if I have more PJ Harvey albums to listen to…

We all have tastes that might not mesh with what the rest of humanity likes. I, for one, like to get really drunk every now and again, while my wife hates that, and she, for some odd reason, likes to clean the house constantly, while I hate that… Ying Yang some might call that.

In the case of Mr D’s taste in certain artists, I don’t know if we can talk about Ying Yang… more like “just kick me in the nuts and let’s get it over with”.

I’ve mentioned it several times before, one of these days I might just have to purchase the damn book so I can read the reasonings behind the, at times, nightmare I have to go through while listening to album #x of artist Y.

This album started off okay… but then this singing thing was being repeated several times… and my finger started itching, and I was forced to hit next over and over again.

According to my wife I am turning into a grumpy old man… maybe… at least I know who’s to be blamed… fucking Dimery.

2*

I've never really bought into the cult of PJ so I had low expectations coming into this one. I was pleasantly surprised how much I didn't hate it.

MOTHER POLLY JEANNNN.
was so psyched to see this one on here. her most patti smith album. was the first one i ever listened to that my mom recommended. love every song in this one.

At various times, PJ Harvey’s voice reminded me of Exene Cervenka (of X), Laura Nyro, and Bjork. The duet with Thom Yorke is cool. And while I enjoyed the album fairly well, it hasn’t really stuck with me. A decent entry, but one I’m unlikely to think about in the future.

This was the album where I really got PJ Harvey - I'd heard bits and pieces off her previous albums, and liked them OK, but never delved deeper. But this one grabbed me, hook, line and sinker.
It's the sound of Polly Jean in New York, and in love. Alternates between tender and loving (A Place Called Home, You Said Something, This Mess We're In, Beautiful Feeling) and rocking out hard (Big Exit, Good Fortune, Kamikaze, The Whores Hustle and The Hustlers Whore, This Is Love). It's all fantastic and I love it.

This is the second of her albums I have had in just a couple of months.

The Thom Yorke song was good because it sounded like Radiohead

This Is Love was tough to get through.

I'm not finding too much to like here, and honestly, I'm looking forward to the end

⭐⭐.49

I love her first 3 albums so much. This one falls off a touch.

I've really gotta listen to more PJ Harvey, because this was really good. This is one of the albums that I think most effectively translates the early '90s alt rock/grunge sound into the 2000's. And PJ Harvey pulls it off just by embracing an honest approach, and a sound that emphasizes both low polish muscle, and melodic sensibilities. She is gruff and convincing, and her lyrics are both to the point and really cool poetry. For the best of what this has to offer, check out Big Exit and Horses In My Dreams; two very different, very good songs. But this project ends up really tight and consistent. Mostly though, this experience told me that I just need to spend more time with PJ Harvey, this is really cool stuff.

My first proper album from PJ Harvey, and I’m still not completely sure what to make of her style. 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘢 has a clean, direct sound and a really strong atmosphere running through it. A few tracks stand out immediately, and the whole album feels very confident and self-assured.

At the same time, a lot of it starts to blur together for me after a while. I can appreciate the mood and songwriting, but I don’t fully connect with it emotionally. Still a good album, just not one that completely wins me over.

I like her voice, the music and the song with the Radiohead guy. Just can't decided if I would actually go back and listen to the album or any of the songs again. 3.5/5

PJ Harvey is such an amazing songwriter and performer. Even her "weaker" recordings are at least good, which makes it especially hard — and somehow pointless — to attach a plain number to Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. This album is often hailed by critics as one of her very best, but I'm not entirely sure I agree. The second half falls a little behind in terms of melodies and instantly memorable songwriting. Sure, the album has many brilliant moments (like Good Fortune — what a tune!), but does Stories... truly reach the heights of Rid of Me, To Bring You My Love, Is This Desire?, or Let England Shake? Hmmm. It might be a matter of personal preference in the end. I'd say it's on par with the equally stunning White Chalk (second tier, but nonetheless essential listening).

My best guess is that this album marks PJ Harvey becoming more accessible to a wider audience, smoothing out some of the rough edges that made Stories... a great fit for its era. The eerie, strumming Beautiful Feeling with its dual vocals perfectly captures the collective sense of unease around the turn of the century, which is why it might have resonated so strongly with critics. Much like Kate Bush, it's hard to overstate the genius of PJ Harvey. I'll repeat what I said when rating The Sensual World: This would be a clear 5, if PJ Harvey hadn't already created even more towering works. In the bigger picture, Stories... serves as a transitional work between PJ Harvey's early masterpieces and the more understated, melodic approach to songwriting that she perfected on later albums like Let England Shake.

Just the kind of cool interesting music I hoped I would find! ✅

Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea might be the weakest of the PJ Harvery albums i have looked at so far. It isn't bad but it doesn't really have the cool, hard grit of Dry nor the masterful and layered production that Let England Shake had. Its in it's own spot of doing both the things the other two albums did but not doing either of them as well as the other albums. There are still some good things about this album, the music itself was still pretty solid and PJ Harvey herself did a good job on vocals and songwriting. Thom Yorke also appeared on a few tracks and his presence is appreciated here too. Its still a decent album, it just doesn't hold a candle to the other two PJ Harvey works i looked at.
Best Song: One Line
Worst Song: Kamikaze