PJ Harvey - 'To Bring You My Love' (1995)

Versions:
LP
CD
CD (UK)
CD (Signed)
CD (with bonus disc)

Tracklisting:
1. To Bring You My Love
2. Meet Ze Monsta
3. Working For The Man
4. C'Mon Billy
5. Teclo
6. Long Snake Moan
7. Down By The Water
8. I Think I'm A Mother
9. Send His Love To Me
10. The Dancer

Best tracks:
To Bring You My Love
Working For The Man
Down By The Water
The Dancer

Currently listening to: CD


Here's another big one I'd better get started on.

PJ Harvey.

Peej.

Probably my favourite artist of all.

That's a big call. Yet, it's one she deserves.

(I've never expressed in words - aside from drunken Facebook statuses and long texts to friends - my love for all things Peej. Expect long, ranty, love-filled posts. You've been warned).

And, I have to start with To Bring You My Love.

It might - might - be my all time favourite album. It might be equal with Horses, Fun House, Friends In Danger, Cheap Thrills and Like A Prayer. It might also be equal to Rid Of Me, Is This Desire? and White Chalk.

It might also rise above the rest, just a little bit.

Yeah, this is probably my favourite album of all time.

And, 'To Bring You My Love' is probably my favourite song of all time.

I first heard PJ Harvey in the film, The Basketball Diaries. Hardly a romantic introduction. 'Down By The Water' plays during a sex scene. I remember pausing the credits to find out what the song was. There was just something about it. It was pretty sexy. And, that voice. Not long after, sometime in the late 90's, I saw the video on 'rage'. And loved it. I didn't know who this sultry woman was, she seemed such an enigma. Fast forward a year or two. And enter the wonders of the internet. Man, I loved Napster. As a teenager, I bought music when I could afford it, but suddenly, here was all the music I could think of, right at my fingertips. Sure, it took half an hour for one song to download (if you were lucky), but it was all there. I began discovering a lot of new music, and trawling the internet for suggestions of new music I might enjoy.

PJ was the first big discovery, thanks to the internet. I remembered that song I'd heard in The Basketball Diaries and downloaded it. Something about it spoke to me. So, I download another PJ song. Then, another. And another. And, so on. It wasn't long before I was hooked. I managed to download all of To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire?, along with a bunch of b-sides from both albums (and a bunch of songs from the other albums, too. But Dry and Rid Of Me sucked in 90's mp3 quality. They took a bit longer). I became instantly obsessed. This was like nothing I'd ever heard before, yet it somehow encapsulated everything I loved about the music I already liked. Plus, that voice. Something about her voice just went straight to my insides.

No new music has affected me quite the same since. For a few years, everything seemed shit compared to PJ Harvey - even things I liked. In some ways, I still feel like everything is shit compared to PJ Harvey. I was expecting the novelty to wear off - 15 years later, it still hasn't. For me, she is musical perfection. Everything she touches turns to gold. Now, I understand that she's not for everyone, but for me and my taste, she encapsulates everything I love about music. Whether it the feral energy of  Rid Of Me, the haunted folk and mental insanity of White Chalk, the atmospheric emotions of Is This Desire?, the lush rock of Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea or the war torn stories of Let England Shake, PJ Harvey is the be all and end all for me.

But, back to To Bring You My Love.

I liked 'Down By The Water' initially, but the song that tipped me over the edge was, 'To Bring You My Love'. It flawed me. That riff. Her voice. "Foresaken heaven, cursed God above, laid with the devil to bring you my love". She meant business. OK, so, maybe hadn't literally crawled through the desert to bring you her love, but I'm not gonna argue. She sounded like she had. It still flaws me. And, I love it so much that I really do think it might be my all-time favourite song. It's better than 'Land'. It's even better than 'Like A Prayer'.

'Meet Ze Monsta' kicks things into gear. Why no-one saw fit to release this as a single beyond me. "Big black monsoon, take me with you". The urgency with with she begs, "take me with you", and those screams. This chick is demented. Onto 'Working For The Man'. Oh, god. As soon as that bass line starts, I melt. This is maybe the sexiest song on the album. This one is all about the subtleties. Over that thick bass line, we've got a shimmery guitar and a little percussion. And, once again, that voice, doing it's demented dance over the whole thing. 'C'Mon Billy', which was the albums second single, is a little more conventional. But, she's still playing the demented bitch card. Which is not helped by the video, in which she, looking like drag queen, captures her man, tying his arms around her. It makes for compelling viewing and listening. The song actually sounds quite accessible. Until you take notice of the lyrics.

'Teclo', for me, is the forgotten gem of the album. Somehow, in the midst of that surrounds it, I tend to forget about it. But, it's a really beautiful song. 'Long Snake Moan' rocks hard, but is another forgotten gem. When I first got the album, I used to play it do death. I think I may have played it too much (though, that could be said for the whole album), which isn't a bad thing. It's quite ecstatic really, especially once she gets to the "call me Lazarus" bit. 'Down By The Water' is still brilliant. And, probably, one of the most compelling singles of the 90's. There's not much else that sounds like it. And, the video - it's still my favourite video she's done. 'I Think I'm A Mother', which borrows heavily from Captain Beefheart's 'Dropout Boogie', is sexy as hell. 'Send His Love To Me', another desperate plea for love, was also a single. The album closes with, 'The Dancer', another desperate plea for love, which is utterly brilliant. The whoops and hollers get my every single time.

Looking through the album credits, I'd love to hear the demos for this album. Apparently, she wrote most of them on an organ. And, most of the songs feature other s playing the guitar parts. I'd be very interested to see how they started. PJ being PJ, I'll never get the 7-disc super deluxe To Bring You My Love box set to find out. But, that's another reason I love her so.

I'm not quite sure how I ended up with 4 copies of this CD. The first one I had I got signed, so I wanted to get another. I found one at Cash Converters for $4. It's another Australian pressing, but doesn't have the CD inlay printed like the normal versions. Then the the 2-disc version - a worthy investment for the B-sides disc (which was also released on it's own, so will get it's own blog). Then there's an original UK CD I got in a bundle of PJ CD's off eBay (which I bought in bulk to get a copy of the My Life bootleg - again, more on that later), which is printed on lovely matte paper which make the Australian version look shit in comparison - it really does make a difference. I did notice tonight, after pulling the CD's out, the gold ink which was used for the track listing on the CD versions isn't ageing well. It's almost illegible on the UK CD.

To Bring You My Love is probably the best album to start with, if you're unfamiliar with PJ Harvey. It somehow seems to some up everything that's great about her.