PJ Harvey - The Piano (2007)

I think I need a palate cleanser after that last blog. I deliberately picked this one.

Side A:
The Piano

Side B:
Heaven

This is notable for being one of the few PJ Harvey singles that I own in only one format. Even though the majority of her singles over the past ten years have only been released on 7", I usually pick up promos or other curios. For some reason, I haven't with 'The Piano'.

I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to blog White Chalk, the album from which this single was pulled. It has become one of my favourite albums of all time, if not the favourite (and, yes, I know I said the same about To Bring You My Love. I'll probably say it for every PJ Harvey album I write about. And, I will mean it, sincerely, every time). Despite having White Chalk in my life for eight years, I don't think I will yet be able to articulate just how much I love it, how genius I think it is and just how much it means to me. 'The Piano', with it's images of violence and loneliness, is one of White Chalk's unsettling highlights.

White Chalk was interesting in that all three of it's singles did not, for the first time in Harvey's career, include album outtakes as B-sides. All three features old demos. I've always pictured Polly Harvey having a huge backlog of demoed songs that she's never released, given that she's often stated that she'll write up to 60 songs when writing for an album. This theory (or fantasy) was supported by Mick Harvey when he recorded her beautiful unreleased song, 'Glorious'. He stated that it was on a tape of songs she had given him and he thought it was too good a song to waste away in a drawer somewhere. The White Chalk B-sides only furthered my insatiable curiosity as to what other lost treasures exist.

Both 'When Under Ether' and 'The Piano' featured demos recorded way back in 1988. Intriguing choices, given that 'Dress', her first single, didn't come out until 1991. 'Heaven', 'The Piano''s B-side is an interesting inclusion. She had actually recorded the song with Automatic Dlamini, the first band she was in with John Parish, in 1990 on their unreleased record, Here Catch Shouted His Father. This version, however, is a demo recorded with John Parish in 1988. It's a nice little song, full of Biblical references, which she would later explore further on her first two records. It really shows just far her song writing came in the next few years, especially as the production is reminiscent of the Dry demos.

'Heaven' is a rare glimpse into PJ Harvey's early development as an artist, while still managing to be an enjoyable listen.