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Review
But it’s an awkward record to pour one’s affections over; a snarling affair that barks and lashes out like a beast cornered. The artwork is striking, an apparently topless Harvey flicking a head of entrails-alike hair from, presumably, a bathroom body of water, and the music contained within the packaging is equally as memorable. Largely recorded alongside celebrated engineer Steve Albini, who allows each compositional element space to flex and flail, it’s a collection of songs so close to the bone of subject matter that to cut them would simply blunt the blade.
Amazingly, Rid of Me represented Harvey’s first album for a major label – nowadays, such a risk on a relatively underground artist, whose material is hardly suited to significant radio rotation, is unheard of. But Island’s confidence in their new signing was vindicated when Rid of Me debuted at three on the domestic albums chart, paving the way for Harvey’s future albums to become hits. Also, her rising profile enabled a handful of angst-ridden female songwriters to emerge to prominence, not least Canadian vocalist Alanis Morrissette, whose worldwide smash Jagged Little Pill took its share of cues from Harvey’s bare-all performances.
From which Man-Size Sextet – the one track not recorded with Albini – and 50ft Queenie were selected as singles, though neither possesses the attractive warmth of later cuts like Down By the Water and Good Fortune. But that’s the point, really: Rid of Me isn’t intended as an easy listen. It’s a deeply personal experience, one that presents lyrical catharsis to the fore beside barren arrangements (the album was the last to feature the trio of Harvey, Rob Ellis and Steven Vaughan) to stir the soul like few records of its kind. Even several years on, Harvey’s much-imitated style sounds remarkably fresh, her passion complemented by some enthrallingly naked musicianship.
A tough listen then, even at its comparative prettiest, but an essential one that demands your attention from beginning to end. --Mike Diver
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Customer Reviews
Rid of Me is PJ Harvey's second album, released just a year after her critically acclaimed 1992 debut Dry. Whereas Dry sounded naïve, youthful and almost innocent, the follow-up has a much harder edge to it. The sound is brutally raw, the lyrics are more bitter and wise, the anger is sharper and more pointed. It's a more thrillingly extreme affair all round. Steve Albini's in-your-room production is absolutely perfect for bringing out this nasty side of PJ. He's worked with Pixies and Nirvana; in an interview at the time, PJ explained that she wanted Albini to record them like a live band, so that you could feel the instruments pounding away before you with every hacking guitar riff and thunderous drum kick.
The shocking title track is a Fatal Attraction-style revenge fantasy about a scorned, obsessed lover tormenting her old flame. It starts slowly as a barely audible whisper before exploding into noise at the chorus ("Don't you wish you never never met her!") and building to an unforgettable climax of "Lick my legs I'm on fire, lick my legs I'm desire"), repeated over and over like an unholy mantra. 50Ft Queenie is a sneering, mocking cock-rock parody with a laugh-out-loud chorus of "Hey I'm the king of the world, you oughta hear my song/You come and measure me, I'm 20 inches long". The shrieking two-minute explosion of Snake tells the story of Adam and Eve from a fierce new perspective. Me Jane is a domestic spat between Tarzan and his ladylove, complete with animal whoops, manic guitar riffage and some of the most exciting drumming in recent rock history. Man-Size refers to sodomy, iron knickers and setting fire to her hair. Legs is about cutting someone's legs off. Need I continue?
Musically, the main reference points this time around seem to be punk, blues and Sixties/Seventies classic rock like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan (whose standard Highway 61 Revisited is covered here in jaw-dropping style). PJ's screaming vocals are unforgettable, morphing from man to woman to animal; her guitar playing has a ferocious intensity matched only by Steven Vaughan's thudding five-string basslines and Rob Ellis' astonishing drumwork (he bashes those cymbals harder than any other drummer around). And in the song Missed, there is one beautiful moment of tenderness amid the fury.
Rid of Me is a crucial purchase for anyone who wants to know anything about hard rock. It may freak you out at first, but give it time and you'll grow to love its crazy heart.
Produced by underground hero Steve Alibini, who would later produce Nirvana' 'In Utero', Polly's voice and the guitars are pushed right to the front of the mix in a feral howl. The guitar parts are superb, the slide playing in particular used to strking effect as it had been decades earlier by Elmore James.
The music, all anguish, heartache and obsession, is for the most part echoed by the lyrics, but there's also a dark humour at work here, which too often goes ignored in (male) critics rush to stereotype PJ as the hysterical woman.
Purely and simply a fantastic album, and one that reclaimed a legacy for too long despoiled.
It is sexy, vibrant and full of vigour.
PJ Harvey wails, moans, groans, screams, shouts and gasps throughout the record, breathing... Read more
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