White Chalk by PJ Harvey

Released in 2007 on Universal Island Records.

PJ Harvey is a pretty big deal. She was born in 1969 and has been releasing music since 1991. She's a multi faceted singer songwriter. This her 8th studio album.

On White Chalk, Harvey trades in her guitar for a piano, an instrument she claims she has no expertise with. With it, she creates am albums worth of very sombre, dark and moody musical pieces. There is a lot of accompanying instrumentation, like wine glasses, broken harps, drums, banjo, zither, harmonica ,etc, all used very sparingly.

Her vocals and piano are the focal point of almost each track. Her voice on her is very resigned and almost morose. it's said that she's trying to reach more of a top range with her voice on this album, and that might be true, but for the most part they are soft and haunting.

The lyrics deal with equally gloomy subject matter. Being half undressed and unrecogniseable, devils taking over your soul and unborn children are reoccurring themes. The majority of this album seems to deal with PJ's inner demons and deal with emotions such as loss, loneliness, regret and maybe a little madness.

All in all, this album was very well put together. It was a pretty heavy listen. Even though it's only 34 minutes long, this album seems at least twice that. Lots of weighty subject matter and well orchestrated songs. Definitely a "hurt so good" album. There was quite a bit of beauty in these tracks, but albums like this don't really warrant repeated listen unless you're in some sort of mourning.

3/5

Category:

Music

Tags:

• PJ
• Harvey
• White
• Chalk
• The
• Devil
• Dear
• Darkness
• Grow
• When
• Under
• the
• Ether
• Broken
• Harp
• Silence
• To
• talk
• to
• you
• piano
• Before
• departure
• mountain
• album
• review

[limegreen581]

wats up everyone?? :)

[animalbeats]

American!!!



[SirAllAboutMusic]

Or hanging yourself from the rafters.

[theneedledrop]

I've been meaning to listen to this album, and I feel like a dick for not having heard it yet!

[jaythestingray]

Great review man!

[PhillipThunderGrunge]

her work with Desert Sessions was pretty intense and incredible...

[MonMccool123]

Awesome. Go PJ

[Noyjeetut]

Ya, it feels eerie. Cool point about being confined by your ability at playing an instrument. I usually like more hooky stuff, but that doesn't sound too bad.

[heyjudas]

cool review, g. pj's awesome.

[fijberto]

This sounds like great music to listen to when I'm washing my penis in the sink.