Records: PJ Harvey's Is This Desire?

By Saul Austerlitz

I know that 1994 was supposed to be the Year of the Woman in all fields of artistic endeavor--at least according to most critics. But I propose that this year, 1998, has quietly, but without any doubt, been the Year of the Woman in pop music.

The most spellbinding music to emerge this year has been produced by women, including Courtney Love (Hole), Lauryn Hill, Lucinda Williams, and Shirley Manson (Garbage). Joining in this cavalcade of amazing women is Polly Jean Harvey, whose sixth album, Is This Desire?, is an impressive addition to her already formidable body of work.

Is This Desire? is, for Harvey, a step away from the world of rock 'n' roll. On the album, she bathes her songs in a combination of harsh, metallic beats and ethereal orchestral instrumentation. The latter clearly suits her better, as in the heartbreaking melody of "The River." Lyrically, Harvey transcends the simplicity of her words, which concern obsessive love and its repercussions, with the sheer force of her singing.

In many songs, Harvey takes on the persona of a woman who has been destroyed by love and is filing a report from the depths of her nothingness. Her greatest album to date, the 1995 release, To Bring You My Love, vividly depicted the transcendence inherent in obsessive love, but Is This Desire? is far more interested in its after-effects.

The album's opener, "Angelene," tells the story of a woman who is driven to prostitution by the loss of her true love, but still believes in the possibility of personal redemption. The entire album hinges on this possibility of redemption. Harvey convinces us that in the depths of her suffering, the woman in "Angelene" believes that future joy is possible. In convincing us of this, Harvey allows us to step into her world--a world of love and loss, of retribution and anger and despair. Harvey makes it palatable for us by letting us see the light, though the flicker lasts only for a moment.

On the final song, Harvey asks, "Is this desire?/ Enough enough/ to lift us higher/ to lift us up?" She questions us, wondering whether all the anguish is worth it or whether love is merely a self-destructive enterprise. Harvey has, of course, already answered her own question at the beginning of this challenging work, when Angelene tells us she has "heard there's a joy untold/ lays open like a road in front of me."

PJ Harvey is an artist who refuses to be pigeonholed as a gloom-and-doom torch singer. In refusing to take on this mantle, she has succeeded in crafting one of the most compelling albums of the year. (Island)

By Saul Austerlitz

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