PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her

  by Jon Rogers

published: 13 / 6 / 2004

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Review

Despite 'Uh Huh Her' being Polly Jean Harvey's seventh album and critics pouring over her output for any indication of her state of mind (and the state of her relationships as well) she still plays her cards close to her chest. Just how much do we really know about Harvey the accomplished singer? There are the obvious biographical details like her west country upbringing by slightly unconventional parents and various troubled relationships (the most notable being with Australian singer Nick Cave and her reported new beau filmmaker Vincent Gallo), her emotionally naked albums since 1992's 'Dry' to pour over to try and get into her mind and her comments in interviews to try to add flesh to the bones. Even with all of this Harvey still tantalisingly remains something of an enigma. Never really giving too much away. Trying to get under the skin of her proves to be rather difficult. Then just to confuse matters Harvey seems to like to reinvent her image almost as often as Madonna. Over the years she's played the femme fatale, the dressed-in-black Goth shrieking out songs like the Furies and hasn't been afraid to glam it up (not always successfully) when the mood takes her. Essentially, Harvey has many sides to her character and they're all on display on her latest album. 'Uh Huh Her' sees her produce fourteen more songs of empassioned fury and revenge, detailing desire and despair and carnal obsession. Which have been wrapped-up in her blues infused alt-rock. Where the previous 'Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea' had a (relatively) commercial sound and lush production, 'Uh Huh Her'finds her going back to 8-track basics and a raw, bleeding, pained sound. She's at her most caustic on 'Who the Fuck?' Pounding drums and screeching guitars accompany Harvey as she swears a lot and exorcises her painful memories. It certainly isn't a happy album. although it is, to use Harvey's own description of it, "ugly". While she may not have been having the best time in her life when she recorded it, she's had blacker moments too. 'You Come Through' is plaintive and calming and there's the serenity of an untitled track which is just seagull noises. Generally, her voice isn't howling with pain, more often than not it's just irrate and angry. More the most part though it's a dark, menacing album full of bitter, brooding betrayal with the hint of retribution and revenge lurking close behind. And not the sort of demented rage of passionate anger but the much more sinister sort that has been festering away in the back of her mind for some time, mulling over just how best to get her own back. 'Uh Huh Her' is a bleak offering but not totally black. Either way its a difficult album that doesn't allow the listener to relax.

Track Listing:-

1 The Life And Death Of Mr. Badmouth
2 Shame
3 Who The Fuck?
4 The Pocket Knife
5 The Letter
6 The Slow Drug
7 No Child Of Mine
8 Cat On The Wall
9 You Come Through
10 It's You
11 The End
12 The Desperate Kingdom Of Love
13 Seagulls
14 The Darker Days Of Me & Him

Band Links:-

https://pjharvey.net/
https://www.facebook.com/PJHarvey
https://twitter.com/pjharveyuk

Label Links:-

http://www.islandrecords.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/islandrecordsuk/
https://www.youtube.com/user/islandrec
https://www.facebook.com/IslandRecords
https://instagram.com/islandrecordsuk/

Have a Listen:-