a b Sheffield, Rob (15 October 1998). "Is This Desire?". Rolling Stone. No.797. Archived from the original on 12 November 2007 . Retrieved 28 June 2004. If I was introducing someone to PJ Harvey, I would send them straight to Is This Desire? The main reason for this is the range of styles on the album; the quiet ASMR side on The Wind, and more intense distorted industrial songs such as Joy. It spans both the harsh and soft sides of Harvey’s music making it one of my personal favourites. Coincidently, Polly Jean has reflected that this is the release she is very proud of, explaining that it was also very draining to make due to all the new techniques and experimentations. I would argue that it pays off, it really does sound like she is putting herself out there musically and testing her limits, especially on Electric Light and The River. That's why it's my favourite, it's far from playing it safe. I lived a month straight where I basically listened to this album solely. To me, it is just perfect.

Perhaps because she didn’t shy away from anger or sexuality — and was a young woman expressing anger, at that — her persona was scrutinized more closely. “On the first couple of albums, I was finding a voice for the first time to say an awful lot of stuff that was stored up inside me,” Harvey told The Times in 1999. “I was very young and confused, so yes, those early albums are very angry. I was exploring that and finding a way to express it, and thought there is joy and a vibrant energy there, too. But you get categorized and it becomes rigid, and it doesn’t allow you space to develop and grow.” There is a compelling argument that Let England Shake is Harvey’s masterpiece: its richness and breadth are clear here, an implausibly pretty, echo-drenched song about rioting cities and drowning in sewage, bolstered by a sample from Niney the Observer’s 1970 reggae hit Blood and Fire. 5. Sheela Na Gig (1992) Her record label apparently claimed that Harvey’s first collaborative album with John Parish, Dance Hall at Louse Point, was “commercial suicide”, but listening to That Was My Veil, it is hard to see what the problem was: it’s a fantastic song, Parish’s music so in tune with Harvey’s lyric you would never know two writers were involved. 33. The Sandman (2019) Christgau, Robert (15 December 1998). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice . Retrieved 15 November 2011. The swaggering machismo of the old Bo Diddley hambone beat chaotically, thrillingly pressed into the service of a song about the idiocy of swaggering machismo: “Oh damn your chest-beating,” offers the narrator, clearly thoroughly bored of life as Tarzan’s significant other, “just stop your screaming.” 25. The Piano (2007)

12 Issues

No wonder Harvey’s debut album had such an impact: no one else in 1992 was writing songs quite like Sheela Na Gig, a ferociously eloquent assault on the male gaze and misogyny with the image of a grotesque medieval architectural depiction of female genitalia at its centre. 4. Good Fortune (2000) it was the first time I was listening to a woman sing about being imperfect as well as many of the uncomfortable experiences women face. This was a huge change from the more polished pop I was used to." Harvey sings April in a strange, thin, high voice, as if she is playing a character much older than herself, which adds an emotive punch to the song’s vision of the seasons passing. The music, meanwhile, is just beautiful: bare and melancholy. 20. Rub Til It Bleeds (1993) British album certifications – PJ Harvey – Is This Desire?". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 13 August 2018.

Vowell, Sarah (November 1998). "PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?". Spin. 14 (11): 138 . Retrieved 21 October 2011. i think that the sylvan imagery/natural setting is a metaphor. the characters desire each other in a primative way; the fact that they're building a fire, that they're in trees, walking on sunsets, barefoot, etc, helps to show the carnical nature of their desire for each other. Is This Desire? is particularly moving when it articulates how complicated desire affects women. The protagonist of “A Perfect Day Elise” witnesses the suicide of a beloved; “Catherine” is from the point of view of someone spurned by (and deeply jealous of) the titular character; “Joy” is consumed by “her own innocence” and feels so hopeless she’d rather go blind than remain in her current state. Harris, John (27 September 2007). "Songs of innocence and experience". The Guardian. Film & Music p. 10 . Retrieved 19 March 2009. Posted on 28 September 2007. The year was 1998 and the era of the angst-ridden artist was coming to a natural conclusion. Grunge was long dead, Radiohead had just changed the face of mainstream music in a way no band really had before and that left PJ Harvey in a strange position. She had made a name for herself in the early 90s as foolhardy lyricist on albums such as Rid Of Me (when “PJ Harvey” was a band) and it was clear that if she kept that image up she would end up becoming just another forgotten artist of the time. It could be argued that Polly began her transition on To Bring You My Love but Is This Desire is where her transformation truly began from a headstrong, no nonsense lover to meditative and contemplative songwriter.

Notes

French compilation certifications – PJ Harvey – Is This Desire" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.

In retrospect, it seems faintly amazing that To Bring You My Love was a commercial breakthrough: admittedly less confrontational than Rid of Me, it was still deeply uneasy listening, as evidenced by The Dancer, a stunning exercise in trembling tension, filled with dark religious imagery and references to opera. A love song, no less. 23. You Said Something (2000) Released on September 28, 1998, Is This Desire? didn’t quite reach the chart peaks of To Bring You My Love in most countries. However, commercial success was somewhat beside the point: The album obliterated expectations and found Harvey wresting control of her own narrative. Is This Desire? represents the culmination of her carving out time for self-care, emotional growth, and intense reflection — and channeling this into the lyrics. “I wanted to write for myself, about myself. Like someone looking in on me,” she explained to The Observer in 1999. And essentially, this is why I rank this album higher than any of her preceding or subsequent ones; there are just too many emotional stories and secrets waiting to be unraveled, all of which incredibly significant in their individual compelling ways, and in some ways, even entwined.Woodhouse, Alan (12 September 2005). "PJ Harvey: London Shepherd's Bush Empire". NME . Retrieved 22 December 2015. You would describe On Battleship Hill’s keening vocal and folk-inspired melody as pastoral, but it is hardly a hymn to bucolic serenity: a walk through a former battlefield, unable to shake its lingering sense of death, troubled by the thought that, this time, human nature has irrevocably ruined nature itself. 16. C’mon Billy (1995) Boehm, Mike (27 September 1998). "Four-Star Performers". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 29 August 2010.