Today, October 9, is PJ Harvey‘s birthday, and while it was incredibly difficult to choose three offerings from her legendary discography, we did it. Here are some personal favorites of this author, plus an extra favorite that includes a special guest. Turn the volume up loud and come celebrate PJ Harvey with us.
“To Bring You My Love”
Released on February 27, 1995, “To Bring You My Love” is the title track of PJ Harvey’s third album. With a lilting, continuous guitar phrase that calls to mind Portishead’s 1994 track “Glory Box,” this song evokes a sense of anticipation, lawlessness, and an ancient, unknowable love.
Climbed over mountains / Traveled the sea / Cast down off Heaven / Cast down on my knees / I’ve lain with the devil / Cursed God above / Forsaken Heaven / To bring you my love, Harvey wails in the second verse. She lets her voice fray and groan like a creaky door hinge, but comes back strong in the final verses. It’s as if saying “I’m bringing you my love whether you want it or not.” From there, she falls back into her banshee wail on the last note. There’s a desperation in this song that is evident in Harvey’s vocals, emotion bleeding through every word.
“Oh My Lover”
“Oh My Lover” is from PJ Harvey’s first album, Dry. She has said in past interviews that she wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction to her debut album, calling herself a “naive country girl.” However, it’s clear that Harvey was destined to make music that evokes strong, confusing, contradictory emotional responses. “Oh My Lover” is a great example of this.
Her vocals are desperate and sweet at the same time as she sings to a lover who also loves someone else. Oh my lover / Why don’t you just say my name, she urges, letting her voice howl and drown in emotion. From the first note, when Harvey’s voice is quiet and reserved on the lines You can love her / And love me at the same time, you can tell this is going to be a wild ride of a song. She alternates between moaning, harmonious yelling, and breathless intonations that create a cacophony of sound and feeling.
“Man-Size”
As one fan noted in the comments of the “Man-Size” music video, “She’s the most soft-spoken person but her music is like a monster.” It feels like there’s something that inhabits PJ Harvey that she lets out in her music, in her voice, and her writing. It’s like she’s got an animal living in her, and it comes out on songs like “Man-Size.” Silence my lady head / Get girl out of my head / Douse hair with gasoline / Set it light and set it free, she sings in the final verse. This is a song that perfectly illustrates what it’s like being a woman wanting to be man-sized—yearning for the power that comes with being a man. Harvey sings I’ll calculate my birthright, and toys with her identity throughout this track.
In the end, there’s the desire to cast out all things feminine, but the music video tells a different story. Harvey sits in her underwear and thrashes to the song, shaking her limbs, her head, showing off the feminine movements of her body. She’s embracing her identity in the video as she’s singing about setting it on fire in the lyrics. It’s that contradictory element to her music that makes “Man-Size,” and PJ Harvey in general, such a legend.
“Henry Lee” — Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds ft. PJ Harvey
“Henry Lee” was a song on Nick Cave’s 1996 album Murder Ballads, which featured PJ Harvey. The two were dating at the time, although that year Harvey would break up with Cave with a phone call after his drug habit tore them apart. The break-up inspired Cave’s 1997 album The Boatman’s Call, which has often been dismissed as a radical departure from his usual work at the time. However, the video for “Henry Lee” is an intimate look at the two of them near the end of their relationship.
Dressed in matching white shirts and black jackets, they sing to each other as if they’re the only people in the room. They lean in close, touch each other reverently, and then turn away suddenly as if the emotion is too much to bear. At the end of the video, they dance each other around the empty, green-lit room, embracing and twirling. It’s easy to forget that they broke up that year.
Featured Image by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images
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