The List Magazine -
                Album Review October 19th/November 2nd, 2000

               The champion of countryside rights has moved to the city with a clutch of new
               tales under her belt. In so doing, PJ HARVEY has made a welcome return to
               the fold.

               'Come back to what you know,' said Danny McNamara about those
               could-have-been-huge-but-turned-out-shit indie kids Embrace. Not a motto the
               boys followed themselves, but it could be a byword for many of this season's
               musical adventures.
               This autumn U2 are discarding their post-modern, multi-media, genre-bending
               antics in favour of a return to straightforward anthemic rock. As AC/DC sell out
               gigs all over, people are returning in droves to the rock past they once
               cautiously hid. Hell, even Kylie is getting in on the act, shedding her faux indie
               skin to make way for a poptastic disco-drenched comeback. While her
               reinvention has not quite been on the scale of Bono or Ms. Minogue, PJ Harvey
               has been cocking an ear towards her back catalogue, returning with an album
               that, while not her most coherent, contains some of the strongest songs of her
               career. After the concept-heavy, self-conscious styistics of is This Desire?,
               Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea is evidence that Harvey can still
               produce evocative songs akin to the ones that shot her to prominence in 1991.
               In the interim period since 1998's Is This Desire?, Harvey has been far from idle.
               She made her celluloid debut as Mary Magdalene in the Hal Hartley movie, The
               Book of Life, and has exhibited sculpture in galleries up and down the country.
               She also relocated for a time to New York, a move that has had a profound
               effect on her work.
               As the title would suggest, this record is (excuse the cliché) a game of two
               halves. Written partly in New York and partly in Dorset, a three-way production
               between Harvey, her drummer and sometimes arranger, Rob Ellis, and Nick
               Cave's Bad Seed, Mick Harvey (no relation), the album is notable for the
               contrasting rural and urban environs in which it was written. The New York
               songs stand proud in comparison to subdues compositions like 'Horses in My
               Dreams' or 'One Line,' written in Harvey's home territory of England's South
               West. In the songs of both territories, she reverts to a more personal, intimate
               lyric, a welcome antidote to her previous forays into story-like lyrical fiction. It is
               ironic that someone once so outspoken about country folk and their rights (she
               is openly pro-fox hunting) should be charmed by the wiles of the city.

               It is not only the geography of America's East Coast that has inspired this new
               long player, but also one of its most highly regarded musical exports: Patti
               Smith. On the album opener 'Big Exit, Harvey echoes Horses-era Smith with an
               incessant guitar chug and barked (barking) vocals. Elsewhere 'The Whores
               Hustle and The Hustlers Whore' is a hip swingin' stomp that is so New York it
               should be stuck in a bagel, smeared in cream cheese and washed down with
               sticky, black coffee.
               Former aggressions have not been forgotten. 'Kamikaze' is pure Rid of Me,
               revisiting those choppy guitars and acerbic vocal lines with Rob Ellis' trademark
               drum epilepsy still driving as ever.

               The influence of the Big Apple, however, is the predominating feature on the
               album. It extends to the album sleeve as she cuts a dash in the middle of a
               road in flowing dress and huge retro shades, the bright lights of the big city
               projected behind her.

               Despite this immersion into all things stateside, Harvey has still found time to
               add to her list of collaborators. Radiohead's Thom Yorke contributes backing
               vocals to 'One Line' and 'Beautiful Feeling' and shares lead duties with Harvey
               on 'This Mess We're In.' The song was written with Yorke in mind and his
               plaintive whine, like Nick Cave's baritone growl before, complements Harvey's
               smooth mid-tones perfectly. As he cries about wanting 'to make love to you
               baby,' the call-and-answer vocal lines bring out the best in Yorke. Harvey,
               meanwhile, remains subdued, once again. As with Nick Cave and Tricky before,
               she takes a back seat to make way for her boys. Not quite the breathless,
               charged atmospherics of her previous hook-ups (with Cave in particular), but an
               exquisite performance nonetheless, making a captivating central point for the
               album.

               While all this retro activity goes on in the pop world, PJ Harvey is one of the few
               at ease with the achievements of her past. As U2 and Kylie balance
               precariously on a credibility knife-edge, PJ Harvey is confidently on top of her
               game. Going back doesn't mean losing sight of why you got where you are in
               the first place, something certain bands would do well to remember.

               Mark Robertson