Product Description

Sixth album for feminist rock act lead by Polly Jean Harvey. This release is the follow up to 1998's 'Is This Desire', and was recorded at the Great Linford Manor. Harvey is joined on 'Stories...' by Mick Harvey from Nick Cave's Bad Seeds,and long time drummer Rob Ellis.

Track Listing

1. Big exit
2. Good fortune
3. Place called home
4. One line
5. Beautiful feeling
6. Whores hustle and the hustlers whore
7. This mess we're in
8. You said something
9. Kamikaze
10. This is love
11. Horses in my dreams
12. We float
13. This wicked tongue

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4452 in Music
• Released on: 2003-08-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Running time: 51 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The most incendiary female British performer to emerge in the 1990s, Polly Jean Harvey has fought against stereotyping every step of her career. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea--her sixth album--is as powerful a record as any she's made. It strikes a masterful balance between her blues/folk roots, avant-garde leanings and soaring pop sensibility. The abrasive and jagged guitars hark back to her fiery 1992 debut album Dry on the ballistic yet anthemic opener "Big Exit" while the dreamy and opulent closer "We Float" demonstrates how her song writing has matured. Elsewhere the clamour and emotional rush of a heady relationship--particularly on the Thom Yorke duet "The Mess We're In"--gives the album a ferocious clarity. The production skills of Mick Harvey (of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds) lends depth and assurance, but though PJ quotes from many influences--The Who, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, even West Side Story--her own indomitable presence shines throughout. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea showcases a singular talent at the peak of her powers. --Gavin Martin

Customer Reviews

Is this PJ at her 'lightest'?
Before listening to this album, I had heard her other album, TO BRING YOU MY LOVE. That album was intensely dark, really quite disturbing in places. STORIES FROM THE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA is quite a change to this dark side of Harvey. Although she is still able to pack a few punches, STORIES is defintiely more accessible than TO BRING YOU MY LOVE.

Love finally seems to be something that can be celebrated, as well as being the bringer of intense pain. In "One Line", Harvey describes such a hopeful love relationship, describing how a connection between two loving hearts may be able to keep the two people safe in todays warring world.
"This is Love" is an incredibly catchy song that also sings about the joys of love (with just a bit of lust thrown in for good measure). It reminds me of a honeymoon period for relationships, where you can't get enough of the other person, and all you want to do is have physical contact with them.

As another reviewer has suggetsed, if you are new to PJ's work, this may be the best place to start. It is a fantastic rock album, providing a different side to PJ. Even when she seems to be celebrating the good points of love and relationships, there is an undoubtable amount of emotion and rawness to make sure that PJ's ture essence of herself remains withing her music.
A great album - recommended.

A modern rock masterpiece
I'm too lazy to bother reviewing many albums here but I had to make an exception for this one. Why? Because it's one of the greatest rock albums I've ever heard and I want new people to know just how good PJ Harvey really is.

Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea is a masterpiece from start to finish. PJ outdoes herself on raw, fiery, hard-rocking guitar cuts like Big Exit, This Is Love, Kamikaze, The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore and the brilliant bonus track This Wicked Tongue. The spectacular opening song Big Exit speeds past on blazing, careening power chords and powerhouse drumming courtesy of master percussionist Rob Ellis. Good Fortune and One Line both have a dizzying romanticism and surging energy that make them similarly irresistible. And listen out for the quaking monster riff that opens This Is Love as PJ lustily declares, "I can't believe life's so complex when I just wanna sit here and watch you undress" - it manages to be an electrifying, deliciously sexy hard-rock song and witty, tongue-in-cheek fun at the same time. These songs see PJ Harvey revisiting the punky, bluesy power-trio days of her early albums Dry and Rid of Me, and they reveal her oft-cited influence of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and other classic 70s rock. It's not all bluster and noise though. Gorgeous songs like A Place Called Home, You Said Something, We Float and the heartbreaking Thom Yorke duet This Mess We're In will surprise you with their sparkling melodies and a cleaner production than previous PJ Harvey records. There are also two minimalist, stripped-down acoustic numbers - Beautiful Feeling and Horses in My Dreams - that bring a nicely eerie atmospheric touch to proceedings, nestled in amongst the louder tracks.

The whole album is brilliantly sequenced so that it feels like a loosely conceptual song cycle about a person arriving in a big scary city (Big Exit), finding an exciting but dangerous love (the Bonnie and Clyde references of Good Fortune), then enduring romantic heartache (This Mess We're In) and angry turmoil (Kamikaze) before fading out on a promise to "Take life as it comes" (in We Float). But a few minutes after We Float has reached its dreamy, hopeful end, the head-banging bonus track This Wicked Tongue unexpectedly charges in to bring the record to its bitter, explosive, hardcore finish.

PJ Harvey is a unique, genius-level talent and Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea shows her off at her peak: her voice is brilliantly expressive, her lyrics are unusually poetic, and her guitar playing has a ringing dynamic clarity. She simply has a rare brand of emotional intensity and pure passion that cannot be faked.

I strongly urge all you readers to buy this album now - you will NOT be disappointed!

Look Out Ahead I See PJ Come *Classic*
The Mercury music prize winning album "Stories From The City,Stories From The Sea" is one of the best progressive rock albums since i can remember now i have to say my rock knowledge isn't the greatest but i know enough to know that this is a classic.PJ Harvey in the early 90's followed the footsteps of Marianne Faithfull & Patti Smith and brought the feminist image and told the world that women can do rock too!
It starts off with the rather up-beat jingley "Big Exit" probably about paranoia on some level it's one of my favourite PJ songs so far and she sings it with such raw passion.
"Good Fortune" which was one of the singles lifted from the album is one of the most commercial sounding songs of her career it's a good song although not as good as the rest "A Place Called Home" which is my favourite on the album it's such an enchanting song in a dark sorta way, her voice is very raspy on this one and thats one reason why i love it so, again a more commercial sound from her usual underground style.
"One Line" & Beautiful Feeling" are more mellower tracks the latter a nice chilled out love song which keeps at the same tempo all the way through as opposed to "One Line" where it picks up and gets quite hard but still keeping a still mellow vibe.
One of the highlights is the duet with Thom Yorke of Radiohead on "The Mess We're In" a utter masterpiece they both sound fantastic together i think PJ sounds really beautiful on this one.
"This Is Love" is a cool jumpy rock song reminds me of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (PJ is probably one of Karen O's inspirations)
and enjoyable song the only song that dosnt grab me and i that i never really listen to is "Kamikaze" is has a rhythm and blues undertone which i was surprised at but even still a song i can't seem to like.
The 6 minute closer is a true highlight "We Float" could be well a truly be a masterpiece in it's own right a throughly enjoyed every minute of this one

Top 5
1.A Place Called Home
2.Big Exit
3.The Mess We're In
4.We Float
5.Beautiful Feeling

PJ is just like all of the great women of rock throughout the world shes an utter legend in her own right bringing back female rock that sorta disappeared for a while in the 80's (although some kept it alive Tina Turner,KD Lang...etc)and revived come 1992
"Stories From The City,Stories From The Sea" is in my top 25 rock albums where it damn well should be