Review #153: Rid Of Me, PJ Harvey
#153: Rid Of Me, PJ Harvey
I’ve never listened to PJ Harvey before. I’ve never even heard of PJ Harvey before. Am I a bad feminist punk fan? Yes. Yes I am.
“PJ” stands for Polly Jean, which is hilarious because Polly Jean is not my lover/She’s just a girl who thinks that I am the one. Also, before getting a good look at this album cover, I definitely thought she had dreadlocks.
My former roommate argued that PJ Harvey was a little overrated. Part of me wants to agree with her, because every grunge record sounds unique and cool and awesome to me, including Temple of the Dog. And objectively, I know that Temple of the Dog is not that good.
But who cares what she thinks, because I’m so obsessed with Rid Of Me right now. This album has replaced Joni Mitchell’s Blue as my go-to running album. As you can imagine, my running performance has dramatically improved.
FAVORITE SONGS:
“Rid Of Me” — The way this starts so moody and soft, and then just EXPLODES, I wasn’t prepared.
“Missed” — She sounds like the Screaming Trees here, just with better falsetto.
“Legs” — I might as well be dead/But I could kill you instead.
“Rub ’Til It Bleeds” — PJ Harvey is calling you weak.
“Hook” — This guitar part sounds like somebody rubbed dirt into it.
“Man-Sized Sextet” — AH, these strings! I’m gonna have nightmares about this song.
“Highway ’61 Revisited” — What a wild cover! This is called “dynamics,” boys and girls.
“50ft Queenie” — Love rock songs that spell out curse words.
“Yuri-G” — Is not my lover… No, I’m sorry, I’ll stop.
“Man-Sized” — This song grossed my boyfriend out.
“Dry” — Her lyrics are so provocative that you might miss how strong her voice is.
“Ecstasy” — Just listen to her end-of-the-world wail here!
LEAST FAVORITE SONGS:
“Snake” — I thought this one was fun and fast but not all that special. I don’t know, it feels wrong not to include a least favorite song for this one.
IS RS FULL OF IT?
Honestly, yes, but only because the RS blurb acts like PJ Harvey isn’t purely a shock grunge artist, and she is. It’s an amazing album and I think it’s at an appropriate slot in the list, but they act like it’s super genre-bending or something, and I just don’t think it is.
