PJ Harvey
White Chalk
Island Records
By Doug Wallen
The trouble with an artist as acclaimed and prolific as PJ Harvey is to know where to jump in: maybe the Rolling Stone-anointed classics of her early career, or maybe the garage growl of the more recent Uh Huh Her? Sure, those will work just fine. But why not make it interesting and start with her latest, White Chalk?
A sort of backdoor to everything that’s PJ Harvey about PJ Harvey, the album is eerily intimate and emotionally naked. Written primarily on piano, it’s a departure from the bluesy guitar crunch of other albums. There’s still a big sound, though, especially as the opener “The Devil” swells up with crisp, baroque instrumentation and Harvey raises her voice to shivering heights.
Harvey’s aided here by Dirty Three drummer Jim White, who’s graced albums by Cat Power, Smog, and Nina Nastasia. She’s also joined by keys man Eric Drew Feldman (mellotron, mini-moog, optigan, etc.,) and her longtime partner John Parish, playing everything from banjo to wine glass and co-producing with Harvey and the inveterate Flood. Harvey juggles plenty of instruments herself, even playing a broken harp on, yes, “Broken Harp.”
There’s a funereal atmosphere to White Chalk, captured best in “Dear Darkness,” on which Harvey’s ghostly lilt and spare way around the ivories commands our attention without question. “When Under Ether” is equally creepy – opening line: ‘The ceiling is moving’ – but there’s more activity beneath the song’s surface, fleshing out the slowly unfolding lyrics about disappearing into a haze not altogether unpleasant.
The solemn lyrical content and instrumental diversity of these songs make them easy to inhabit for what seems like hours, such that it’s a bit of a surprise to realize that most of them clock in at around three minutes. And if the proceedings sound dreary on paper, they’re offset by a production warmth and hypnotic piano presence that guide the listener safely through the darker caverns of Harvey’s head and heart.
White Chalk may in fact be the best place to start for Harvey newcomers, setting her indelible songwriting (to quote too many of her lyrics out of context would only diminish their effect) against a backdrop that never threatens to overwhelm it. There are no dirty guitars or other distracting rock signifiers, making what we do hear resonate all the more.
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