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Article: Agonized Woman; From PJ Harvey, a Brooding `Is This Desire?'
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- September 30, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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"Is this desire/ Enough/ To lift us higher?" asks PJ Harvey in
the title song of her new album, and it's clear that the answer is
supposed to be profound. In fact, though, "Is This Desire?"
(Island) doesn't lift its listener above the singer's usual concerns.
A small-town English bohemian raised by blues-fan parents, Harvey has
settled so deep into a swamp of secondhand metaphors that her
obsessions have become shtick.
Musically, Harvey is a punk-blues prodigy whose rough-edged
original mode has grown to embrace smoother techno and dub. Like
Tricky's "Angels With Dirty Faces" (on which Harvey appears), "Is
This Desire?" combines the haunted quality of vintage Delta blues
with the ...