PJ Harvey’s sophomore album was so searing that even the singer herself discovered it arduous to hearken to. “It’s not something you’d put on to relax,” she stated, following the discharge of Rid Of Me in 1993. “It’s a friction, an uncomfortable feeling. Which is how I feel most of the time – never quite at ease.”
Hearken to Rid Of Me right here.
She wasn’t unsuitable – it was disturbingly uncooked. Reviewing it for The Guardian on the time, I attempted to convey its otherness: “‘Rid Of Me’ is the sound of a psyche being scraped with sandpaper…It’s the first record by a female performer since Patti Smith’s debut, ‘Horses,’ to defy existing frames of reference. The nearest comparison is Smith herself – a Smith divested of art-house leanings and influenced by feminism and 15 years of post-punk guitar-rock.”
Returning to it now, I hear issues I couldn’t in 1993. Her youth, primarily; the relentlessness and emotional extremes that energy the file are the protect of somebody too younger to know that, hurtful as it’s, life goes on. That doesn’t negate her achievement; it’s nonetheless a towering album.
A industrial and demanding breakthrough
Rid Of Me was additionally her industrial breakthrough. In Britain, it reached No.3 within the chart and was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize, whereas Harvey was nominated for a Brit Award within the Greatest Feminine Solo Artist class (she misplaced to the extra emollient Dina Carroll). It even produced her first U.Okay. Prime 30 single in “50ft Queenie.”
On the opposite facet of the Atlantic, the place she was seen as a cool English indie-grrrl, Rid Of Me obtained appreciable college-radio traction. In each nations, it appeared in end-of-year polls, and the consensus at the moment is that it’s her masterpiece.
Aside from a canopy of Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” that’s unrecognizable due to vocal distortion, the album typically displays Harvey’s life at that time. She was a rustic woman who’d turn out to be the topic of monumental press curiosity, and the eye was sporting her down. It was aggravated by nonetheless residing within the chilly flat in Tottenham, North London, the place she’d been depressing through the writing of Dry.
Feeling backed in opposition to a wall, the one approach out was to return to Dorset, the agricultural county the place she’d grown up. Renting a room above a restaurant in a seaside city and watching fishing boats enter and depart the harbor, she was lulled into serenity. She accomplished the Rid Of Me songs and the band went to a studio in Minnesota to file them, with Steve Albini producing.
Albini was chosen as a result of Harvey beloved his work with Pixies, and thought his “bare, very real sound” would gel with hers. She additionally appreciated his refusal to let her brood and overthink whereas recording; they had been out and in of the studio in two weeks.
Sexual politics, relationships, and gender fluidity
As with Dry, the songs pack such a punch that Harvey’s emotional well-being grew to become a music-press speaking level. The impact was intentional in accordance with Polly, who had simply signed to Island Data and was fearful that the foremost label would attempt to make her extra saleable. Decided to “show Island what I’m about and what they’re dealing with,” she went out of her approach “to make a very difficult record.”
Rid Of Me was a mixture of autobiography and gothic play-acting, however it coalesced into an authentically visceral howl. The title observe, which opened proceedings, was a warning to a departing lover: “You’re not rid of me… I’ll make you lick my injuries/I’m gonna twist your head off, see?” It was scary and intense, but the refrain, “Doncha, doncha wish you’d never met her?,” was as catchy as a Ramones hookline.
From there, the album went careening into sexual politics, relationships, and gender fluidity. The final was tackled within the very humorous “50ft Queenie,” which ridiculed the male obsession with genitalia by claiming that Polly’s personal organ was “20 inches long.” For good measure, she roared, “I’m the king of the world… You can bend over, Casanova!”
Nevertheless you measured it, this was compelling stuff. Delving additional, the observe “Dry” (written for the debut album, however not included on it for causes unexplained) scathingly appraises a lover and finds him wanting. Within the track, Harvey admits she has “wet sides from time to time,” however that primarily “you leave me dry.” It’s so neat and so vicious that it’s unattainable to not really feel a contact of sympathy for the person it’s addressed to.
Then there’s “Rub ‘til It Bleeds,” abrasive in both name and style. It starts as a bluesy amble, with Harvey inviting her man to rest while she rubs his head. But tension builds, the bassline stutters and she slips into a fourth dimension of anguish: “I’ll easy it properly/Rub it higher ‘til it bleeds.” Later, the discordant string sextet on “Man-Size Sextet,” that saws away as Polly sings by means of gritted tooth, provides a horror-movie chill to the air.
Stark and in your face
If Rid Of Me is sort of a visitation from an avenging fury, that sensation is amplified on 4-Observe Demos, a 14-song assortment of different variations and unreleased materials initially issued 5 months after Rid Of Me. Now re-released alongside its father or mother album, it gives an perception into how Harvey initially imagined the songs. It’s simply Polly and her guitar right here – stark and in your face.
Even with out Albini’s manufacturing dynamics, the eight songs from Rid Of Me and 6 beforehand unheard are greater than tough takes. Harvey knew the place she was going with them, and was drawing the blueprint that her band and Albini would comply with.
Any of the latter might simply have been included on Rid Of Me; they’re that good. How good? Properly, “Reeling” begins with the declaration “I wanna bathe in milk, eat grapes/Robert De Niro, sit on my face.” That good.
Rid of Me proved that Polly Jean Harvey wasn’t going wherever, and elevated her into the corporate of Patti Smith, Kate Bush, and different musical visionaries who’re unable to be something however themselves.
Rid Of Me will be purchased right here.
