PJ Harvey - Is This Desire
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CD Details
Artist: PJ HarveyEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Published: 1998
CD Release Date: 1998-09-29
Music Label: Island
Soundtracks:
- Angelene
- The Sky Lit Up
- The Wind
- My Beautiful Leah
- A Perfect Day Elise
- Catherine
- Electric Light
- The Garden
- Joy
- The River
- No Girl So Sweet
- Is This Desire?
Music reviews of Is This Desire
Music Review: 40 Minutes of perfection
Rating: 5 Stars
Allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite albums EVER:
If you were to poll PJ fans, this will NOT rank as favorite with most of them. However this is my favorite of hers for so many reasons I will try and explain. At this point in her carreer, she had 4 albums under her belt and her fans were accustomed to experiencing a very brash rocker chick. This album is a clear departure of the woman her fans had come to know.
They had become accustomed to this mad operatic diva shrieking and moaning her pain so when many heard this toned down vision, they thought she had lost her strength. But no, she FOUND her strength. In her subtelty she lays claim to power and becomes a whole new artist. Many were also lost on the electronic nature of this album but that only added to her invention. This album is a marvelous blend of electronic elements and organic instruments. Skin to the muscle, blood to the veins. Intimately connected.....
"My first Name Angeline
Prettiest Mess you ever seen
Love for money is my sin
Any man calls, I'll let him in......."
And the search begins..... This song to me, sounds like a hymn, but more like a lost spiritual than anything you'd hear in a regular church. That's how much of this album feels to me, like lost spirituals. The kind that you'd only hear in a place where there was no pomp and no tradition, just the open wounds of those in search of healing bleeding until they either have no blood left or have been completely healed. A friend of mine characterizes this album as "haunted" and I feel that is really perfect description.
The album is very focused on female characters.....Angeline, Leah, Elise, Catherine, Joy, Dawn....... And word has it that many of these are literary characters which stories have been written about. However, I will never read any of the stories these characters are based on for I would ruin the truth I have created in my heart.
"I'm walkin in the city tonight
I'm walkin in the city at dark
Remembering, remember light
Thinking of nothing and the shooting stars
And this world tonight is mine
a world to be remembered in
Think on a faded photograph
My hair longer than it's ever been, and then
THE SKY LIT UP!
the sky, my friend
the sky lit up and i'm lighter than I ever been..."
OMG! Amazing what can happen in less than 2 minutes..... My mind's sky turns to fire when I hear this song......and I become lighter than I've ever been. By the time this song is over, your sky will be on fire too.....
"Catherine liked high places
High up on the hills
A place for making noises, like whales
Noises like the Whales
Here she built a chapel with
Her image on the wall
A place where she could rest and rest
A place where she could
and listen to the wind blowing, and listen to the wind.....blow"
This is the church of lost spirituals. I have longed to be like Catherine at her chapel.
"Did you see her walking?
Did she come around here, Sir?
Black hair, brown eyes
My beautiful Leah
She was always so needing
Said, "I have no-one"
Even as I held her
She went out looking for someone
She only had nightmares,
And her sadness never lifted
And slowly over the years
Her lovely face twisted
Did she come around here, Sir?
I swear you would remember
Black hair, Brown eyes
Late September
October
November
December
It never leaves my mind
The last words she said
"If I don't find it this time,
Then I'm better off dead".
Cold desperation....... Sadly, this reminds me of my cousin Lisa who was murdered in March :cry: She was always searching for something in her life, even searching unto her death. When Gangsta calls this haunted, I can't think of a more perfect song to really characterize that feeling. I included this on a mix disc that focuses on social ills, anguish and pain. This song was just perfect for that mix.
"It's a perfect day.....a perfect day Elise."
Perfection is the furthest thing from the truth.
"Catherine Debara you've murdered my thinkin
gave you my heart, you left the thing stinkin
I'd shake from my spell if it weren't for my drinkin
the wind bites more bitter with each light of mornin....
'til the light shines on me
I damn to hell every second you breath"
Here is Catherine's reintroduction. You get your first glimpse of her at her chapel high up on the windy hill. And now you know what conclusion she's come to.....
"The beauty of her, under electric light"
electric........light. The initial sublelty of this song is belied by the entire universe that lies within. Listen carefully and you will hear that there is a whole world going on underneath the surface....
One of the most famous stories ever told is the act of humanity's genesis. Imagine the perfection of that day. God taking dirt and forming a man, taking a rib and fashioning a mate for him. A New Earth, pure skies, crisp clean air, warm sunshine washing the skin with its golden rays. Every day after became more perfect than the day before and this was the most perfect of all days. And then.........
"He was walking in the garden
and he was walking in the night
and he was singing a sad love song
and he was praying for his life"
Adam sensed something was very wrong for it had never turned so dark so quickly and so early, neither had it been so cold. Searching the garden, he noticed Eve standing at the foot of the Tree of Knowledge in discourse between the highest powers. Adam saw the flaming eye of God's wrath focused on the cool slick veil of smoke that surrounded Eve and there enveloped in the shroud of Satan's lie stood Eve with a half eaten fruit. Remembering the commandment to never eat of the Tree of Knowledge, in fear he ran......
"and the stars came out around him
he was thinking of his sins
and he's looking at his song-bird
and he's looking at his wings"
Having not come to Eve's defense, Adam's guilt bore down on him like a thousand crimes. Grieving over the knowledge he would never see his Eve again, he went in search of the one thing he knew would bring him comfort........his song-bird. Adam's earliest days in the garden had him searching for this creature. Just one of many of God's creations, this one made the most beautiful music of all. However, of all the times Adam heard the bird's majestic symphonies, he was never able to spot it. Having never seen his songbird before Adam stood in shock and awe as he stood looking at his mirror image. The song-bird was not a bird, but a man.....
"there inside the garden
came another with his lips
said, 'Won't you come and be my lover?'
'Let me give you a little kiss'
and he came, knelt down before him
and fell upon his knees
'I will give you gold and mountains
if you stay awhile with me'"
The first words of his creator upon his waking moments rang clear in his memory.....For I have fashioned a mate for you..... and Adam realized that God had given him a CHOICE. God created Adam 2 mates and now the choice was there before Adam, but which one was right? Should he stay with his song-bird? Should he validate Eve's disobedience to their creator? Adam's heart surged and swelled and, he got down on his knees and pled for the love of his bird. Adam promised him everything the Lord had created on his earth, if he stayed with him.
"and there was trouble taking place, trouble taking place......."
As Adam pled with his song-bird, Eve was being banished from the garden......
"there inside the garden
They kissed, and the sun rose
and he walked a little further
and he found he wasn't alone"
Having just been lost in the comfort of his lovers arms, Adam's stopped dead in his tracks as he noticed the jealous and rage filled glare of a woman he used to know named Eve.
"and the wind, it gathered round him
he was thinking of his sins
And he's looking for his song-bird
He was looking for his wings
and there was trouble........taking place. Trouble, taking place"
In Scorn, the wind of Eve's rage whirled around them. In her short time on the earth she had been betrayed by the snake, her creator and her mate. In shame, Adam could barely meet her gaze. Remembering how he ran in fear instead of standing in solidarity with his charge, the burden of guilt was too much and Adam cried hot bitter tears, facing an impossible decision.
Which mate should he choose? Should he choose the path Eve has taken and become banished from his paradise forever? Does he leave the loving arms of his song-bird never to see him again? How to make up for the fact that he left Eve alone when she needed him the most? Eve walked over to Adam as the Song-bird tearfully looked on from afar. Eve stretched out her arm and opened her hand and in it was the half eaten fruit.
Perhaps Eve's sin wasn't the only betrayal that day......
"Joy was her name
A life un-wed
Thirty years old
Never danced a step
She would have left these red hills far behind if not for her condition
'Would have left these red hills long ago if not for my condition'
Pitiful Joy
She looked away
Into a hollow sky
Came face to face
With her own innocence surrounding her until it never was a question
Innocence so suffocating, now she cannot move, no question
No hope for Joy
No hope or faith
She wanted to go blind
Wanted hope to stay
'I've been believing in nothing since I was born, it never was a question.'
Trapped, with no way out..... :shudder:
"And they came to the river
And they came from the road
and he wanted the sun
just to call his own
And they walked on the dirt
And they walked from the road
til they came up close
Throw your pain in the river
To be washed away slow
And we walked without words
And we walked with our lives
Two silent birds
Circled by
Like our pain in the river
And we followed the river
And we followed the road
And we walked through this land
And we called it a home
But he wanted the sun
And I wanted the whole
And the white light scatters
And the sun sets low
Like the pain in the river"
PJ is famously known for singing about cutting off her lovers legs so he cannot run away :lol: And one of the really intriguing things about her as an artist is that she gives voice to the things that many cannot find the courage or the ability to speak. She is able to sing and play her feelings in the way that many of us wish we could but simply aren't able. I feel that is the kind of purpose she was made to serve. I think this is really the first time you get a glimpse of the PJ that strives for cleansing and healing. I feel that this is the first peak at the evolved person she is to become......
"In came the girl with the saddened eyes
And asked him over again and again
"Was I too weak ? Was I a child ?
And can't we leave here and start again ?"
Said "I don't mind if you take me down"
And "I don't mind if you break it all"
But "how much more can you take from me?"
"How much more did you take from me?"
"I'd like to take you inside my head"
"I'd like to take you inside of me"
"You came from heaven" is all he said
"You came from heaven and came here to me
And I love you"
He drove it fast to make the night
And looked at his angel where she lay
Resting her head and closed her eyes
And outside the heat and the summer fades
Deep in the sky a storm he'd seen
Deep in the sky a storm he'd seen
"There ain't nothing no girl so sweet"
"Took her from heaven and gave her to me"....."
This is probably the primest example of how excellently fused the electronic and natural are. Anyone who feels that they miss the old PJ and therefore neglect this album, can feast on this song because aside from Sky Lit Up, it's singly THE performance that characterizes the PJ that people claim is missing from this album....
Mary and Joseph went on and on..... The Sun went down. It was getting cold. They saw fire....
"Joseph walked on and on
The sunset went down and down
Coldness cooled their desire
And Dawn said, 'Let's build a fire'
The sun dressed, the trees in green
And Joe said, 'I feel like a King'
And Dawn's neck and her feet were bare
Sweetness in her golden hair
Said, 'Iím not scared'
Turned to her and smiled
Secrets in his eyes
Sweetness of desire
Is this desire
Enough enough
To lift us higher
To lift above?
Hour-long, by hour, may we two stand
When we're dead, between these lands
The sun set, behind his eyes
And Joe said, 'Is this desire?'
Is this desire
Enough enough
To lift us higher
To lift above?
Is this desire
Enough enough
Enough inside
Is this desire?"
Is this Desire? Is......this......Desire?
That question can be asked many many times over during this 40 minute spell. 8 years after it's release, this album continues to remain a mystery to me. That is one of the things about it that I love so much.
Description of Is This Desire
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.Each of Harvey's previous albums has been a distinct affair as she took steps forward in not only forging her sound but also exploring the wealthy veins of rock & roll. So on first listen, Is This Desire? almost disappoints; it's very close to the same dark, woozy, and bluesy musical territory she staked out on To Bring You My Love. But it's been said that though good stories can be read once, great stories must be read twice, and, like great literature, this album deserves repeated listenings to appreciate its beautiful complexities and subtle shadings. A recommendation: Spend a few nonstop hours with Is This Desire? It will change you. --Tod Nelson
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