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PJ Harvey
Uh Huh Her
(Island)

by Joe O'Brien

If you love PJ Harvey, there's a good chance you thought Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea was her shining moment of shining moments, when the ghost of her wounded angel was finally reborn into a spirit that sounded triumphant over, rather than simply empowered by, confrontations with her darkest demons

So it may be a slight disappointment for the fans that four years later, Uh Huh Her finds her back to the drawing board, both sonically and emotionally. In both senses, everything is stripped dry and rid of triumph, but not quite Dry or Rid of Me. Despite the seagull sounds, and nothing else, in one "thematically, I see what you're doing, but it's really not necessary" track, and the aquatically reverbed wooden xylophone-sounding things of "You Come Through," her soul sounds like it woke up from Stories' wonderful dream to find itself wandering the desert alone and wounded as badly as ever. "Mr. Badmouth"'s lips taste of poison, the shadow of love is not fondness but shame, and "who-the fuck! do-you-think-you are?! get out! of my head!" Watch yourself, Jack, that pocket knife of hers has got a shiny blade. And when she asks an intoxicating lover, "Could you be my calling?" it's not under the influence of a rollicking aphrodisiac of a man who makes her want to do nothing but watch him undress- now the formula of her spell seems more like 'ludes and desperation. But even though there are few standout tracks, and one would-be-standout, "No Child of Mine," begs to be fleshed out for a couple more minutes, most of the songs are simply very good PJ Harvey material.
Polly Jean Harvey: Recorded Life
Dry
(Too, 1992)
To Bring You To My Love
(Island, 1995)
Rid of Me
(Island, 1993)
Is This Desire?
(Island, 1998)
4- Track Demos
(Island, 1993)
Stories From the City,
Stories From the Sea
(Island, 2000)

And though it occasionally crawls toLiving Dead-like paces that Stories never did, and as a whole, momentarily sucks the joy out of its author's autobio-discography, Uh Huh is more often than not alluring in its own right. Besides, it feels unfair to get on Uh Huh's case and ask "Why can't you be more like your older sister, and be happy and get married and start a family?" when, deep down, we admirers of Ms. Harvey were probably hoping she'd come back brandishing that jagged little pocket knife of hers.