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29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
PJ Harvey's best album, April 13, 2005
PJ Harvey's fifth album "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea" is the singer/songwriter's finest album and should please fans of her older albums and new fans alike. "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea" is somewhat slicker, less rough-around-the-edges than her other albums. I would recommend this album to start off with, as it is probably her most assessable work.
I personally feel that this album has her best collection of songs. From the opening rocker "Big Exit" to the beautiful "We Float," every song is a winner. There isn't any filler to be found. Each song is well written and memorable. It's a good mix of fast paced rockers, mid-tempo songs, and slower ones. The listener never gets bored. This CD deals with themes of love, relationships, etc, but never gets tedious or trite. Everything on this album is sincere and straight from the heart.
The album opens up strong with "Big Exit" an excellent rocker with a good, infectious hook. "Good Fortune" keeps up the momentum. "A Place Called Home" is a beautiful, somewhat morose, slower number whose enchanting background vocals stay with the listener long after the song has ended. The album slows down a bit for the next few songs. The mid-tempo "One Line" leads in perfectly to the dark, atmospheric "Beautiful Feeling." The pace is picked up with "The Whores Hustle, and the Hustlers Whore." "The Mess We're In" features a duet with Thom Yorke. Their overlapping vocals work nicely together. "You Said Something" is another softer number in the vein of "A Place Called Home," only slightly more upbeat. The pace picks up considerably with the excellent rockers "Kamikaze" and "This is Love." The album starts to wind down with the beautiful "Horses in my Dreams" The duel piano and guitar make "Horses in my Dreams" enchanting. The album ends with its' finest track, the majestic "We Float." The verse serves mostly to build up the song and it's mesmerizing chorus totally engulfs the listener.
If you don't own any PJ Harvey albums, this is a good place to start. It's a really good album and should please old and new fans alike.
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly Racous, October 31, 2000
Finally, we are blessed with someone talented enough to sum up the human experience with one shockingly universal cry, "I can't believe life's so complex/when I just want to sit here and watch you undress." Anyone who is not brought to the hight of joy by the comic truth of that statement is either gravely ill or just needs to get out more. The tone of that remark pervades this album, the deliciously hyper follow-up to 1998's solemn "Is This Desire." Patti Smith must have licked her chops the first time she gave this record a listen, as she undoubtedly has by now. The punk rock freakout of an opener, "Big Exit" is as compelling as anything on her debut, Dry, or the brilliant To Bring You My Love of 1995. Honestly, after the dour collection PJ Harvey brought to us in 1998, I didn't think she still had it in her. But, man, does she ever! It doesn't stop there, track after track is electrified with frenzied vocals and fizzing guitar work, courtesy of Mick Harvey of the Bad Seeds. From "Good Fortune" to the explosion of a riff opening "Beautiful Feeling" to the aforementioned "This is Love," it becomes violently obvious that PJ Harvey has every intention of sticking around for a long time to come. But while the album rocks as a whole, the ballads, such as the oddly appealing acoustic song, "Horses in my Dreams," and "One Line" designate PJ Harvey as one of the most talented songwriters of her generation, and I do not pay her that compliment lightly. To call this album a must buy is like saying Bob Dylan is a decent songwriter. Enough said.
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
PJ Harvey retreads her past styles while moving forward, October 31, 2000
PJ Harvey returns with yet another brilliant album. Moving away from the electronic/experimental tendencies found on Is This Desire?, this album features a return to a more guitar-based formula that at times recalls her work on Dry and Rid Of Me. The crunchy guitar of "Kamikaze" and "This Is Love" would fit in perfectly on either of those albums.Several other tracks on the album are lighter songs that feature acoustic guitar and polished pop/rock production with beautiful layering of guitars, synths, pianos, etc. One of these tracks, the wonderful "This Mess We're In", features Radiohead's Thom Yorke on lead vocals dueting with Polly Jean. From the album-opening rocker "Big Exit" to the album's lovely, somewhat minimalist, finale "We Float", this album shines. While most of PJ's albums since Rid Of Me have moved in a radically different direction from the last, this one retreads old ground to combine old and new. The result is a captivating rock album that ranks among her best.
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