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Track Listings
| 1. Angelene |
| 2. The Sky Lit Up |
| 3. The Wind |
| 4. My Beautiful Leah |
| 5. A Perfect Day Elise |
| 6. Catherine |
| 7. Electric Light |
| 8. The Garden |
| 9. Joy |
| 10. The River |
| 11. No Girl So Sweet |
| 12. Is This Desire? |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Each of Harvey's previous albums has been a distinct affair. She has taken steps forward not only in forging her sound but also in exploring the wealthy veins of rock and roll. So on first listen, Is This Desire? seems almost disappointing, very close to 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. In that spirit, this album, beautifully complex and subtly shaded, deserves a few revisitations. A recommendation: spend a few nonstop hours with Is This Desire? . It will change you. --Tod Nelson
Product Description
Fourth "proper" album from 1998 includes "A Perfect Day Elise" and "The Wind".
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I think IS THIS DESIRE? ranks as one of PJ Harvey's most essential recordings, and is certainly her most underrated achievement to date. Upon its release in September 1998, some critics were oddly disappointed by the record, unfairly dismissing it as a letdown after the duly appreciated brilliance of her 1995 classic TO BRING YOU MY LOVE. IS THIS DESIRE? represents a significant progression for Harvey, who here expands beyond her previous punk-blues stylings to incorporate elements of ambient, industrial and drum'n'bass into the mix. With the help of producer Flood, she's crafted a set heavy on studio-based atmospheres and soundscapes, using distorted basslines, textured keyboards and layers of thick electronic static to tell her tales. The largely third-person narratives are full of pastoral imagery, Christian symbolism and invariably doomed, haunted female characters with names like Angelene, Leah and Elise. Her lyrical experiments on this album clearly owe more debt of inspiration to modern literature by JD Salinger and Flannery O'Connor (both directly quoted) than any of her rock contemporaries. Some listeners find IS THIS DESIRE? to be an unnervingly bleak, grim experience, and indeed there are moments of horror ("My Beautiful Leah", "Joy") which reflect Harvey's unhappy personal state at the time of writing. There are references to torture, nightmares, suicide and eternal damnation. But many critics overlooked the delicate beauty of piano-driven ballads like "The Garden" or "The River". All in all, IS THIS DESIRE? stands as a brave, adventurous musical statement from a great artist. Its strange, complex beauties will no doubt be better appreciated and understood with age. Highly recommended.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Is This Desire? has to be Polly Harvey’s most exotic, enigmatic and mysterious album. It’s full of open-ended narratives, puzzling riddles and unanswered questions that tease and tantalise the listener. It revolves around shadowy character studies of oddly named mystery women like Angelene, Leah and Elise, related either in hushed, secretive whispers or explosive banshee screams. Fittingly, it even ends on a note of unresolved doubt and unsatisfied questioning. There is a sense of intense sadness, loneliness and confusion running through these twelve songs. You can never quite get a handle on what these songs are about, but you never get sick of trying to figure them out. Such is the dark, contradictory beauty of PJ Harvey’s fifth album.
Is This Desire? inhabits a unique, claustrophobic sound-world completely of its own. Looped beats and robotic keyboard distortion recur throughout the songs. Here she moves further away from her guitar-driven roots to explore many different styles of music on this record: goth, jungle, industrial, and trip-hop. Rather than being based around the standard guitar-drums-bass lineup, these slow, strange mood pieces were painstakingly crafted, pieced together in the studio layer by layer. As another reviewer already stated, the emphasis is more on atmosphere and sonic landscapes than catchy rock riffs.
The first song Angelene sets the tone: it’s a devastatingly beautiful and surprisingly sweet ballad that blooms into an epic, velvety chorus of “2000 miles away”. Highlights are numerous from this point on: for starters, there’s the shrieking, feedbacking garage rock of The Sky Lit Up; the overdriven bass fuzz and twisted electronica of Joy, My Beautiful Leah or No Girl So Sweet; and the comparatively breezy, catchy single A Perfect Day Elise, with its driving momentum and sleek, glistening harmonies. The Garden is easily one of the most moving, beautiful songs she’s ever written, with its aquatic piano and taut breakbeats. The River pulls you in deeper and deeper with every listen; it has a chilling, dangerously seductive power and quiet force that resonates long afterwards. The woozy title track has only a few sparse beats and gently plucked guitar twangs, but manages to wring an intoxicatingly sensual atmosphere from this minimal instrumentation. The whole album is pure, sparkling, hypnotic black magic.
So what if it takes a little more getting used to than its very different follow-up Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea? This is an equally great album that should be recognised and appreciated far more. Do yourself a big favour and buy Is This Desire? now.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Have you ever fallen totally, and utterly, in love with an album before? Well...I have...it's called Is This Desire? From Angeline to Is This Desire? Polly Jean leads you on a complex journey during which she'll introduce you to a number of female characters, recreating diverse ambiances as she moves along the record. I have listened to it hundreds of times but haven't yet come close to getting tired of it. On the contrary...You might not agree with me, especially if you are not acquainted with PJ Harvey's music and have chosen Is This Desire? to start discovering her work. In this case try Stories From the City Stories From the Sea. But if you're willing to venture on one of the music journeys of you life, run to the record store and get yourself Is This Desire? Enjoy!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
scotto
This is my 4th pj album,, it's got lots of synths in it, which is great, only 2 dodgy tracks on the whole album, the rest is fantastic and sound different to everything else, well... Read more
Published 4 months ago by scotto
a great album
She is a fabulous folk singer with a great range and also a broad repretoir, I could listen to her all day long
Published 6 months ago by Graham M. Macdonald
Sad. Intense. But stunning. For women.
I spent ten years listening to this before I realised how much I needed and loved this. It is profound. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Ms. J. Hamilton
Frozen beauty
I bought this album in 1998 (a decade ago at time of writng) and love it more than ever.
There was a review somewhere that accused the album of not moving on from To... Read more
There was a review somewhere that accused the album of not moving on from To... Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2007 by J D L
is this desire?
pj harvey takes you on a journey into the heart of desire. it is an uncertain ride upon the first few listens, then you kinda get used to the environment and succumb to it. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2005
Flawed but good nonetheless
I found this album great in parts, but annoyingly flawed. I had a strange relationship with it, I think I could find a part in every song which would make me dismiss it, yet by in... Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2005 by Mr. S. A. Brown
UNDERSTATED DEPTH & BEAUTY
I love this album- but if im completely honest.. if 5stars is an absolute msterpiece then this really for me is a 4.5.. why?.. Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2004 by Melissa House
dont listen to the critiques!
I have loved the peej since rid of me and i think that a lot of people dissed this album unfairly,i find it even though dark,quite laid back and beautifully put together,it reminds... Read more
Published on 14 May 2002
The greatest album I've ever listen to
This was my the first PJ album I bought, and since then I've listen to it millions times over and over. Read more
Published on 11 July 2000
Incredible!
I had only heard of PJ in passing on a local modern rock station and had remembered hearing "A Perfect Day Elise" a few times. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2000
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