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Track Listings
| 1. The Devil - John Parish, PJ Harvey, Eric Drew Feldman, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 2. Dear Darkness - Jim White, PJ Harvey, John Parish, Eric Drew Feldman, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 3. Grow Grow Grow - John Parish, PJ Harvey, Eric Drew Feldman, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 4. When Under Ether - PJ Harvey, John Parish, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 5. White Chalk - PJ Harvey, John Parish, Eric Drew Feldman, Jim White, Ali Chant, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 6. Broken Harp - PJ Harvey, Eric Drew Feldman, Mark Ellis, John Parish, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 7. Silence - PJ Harvey, John Parish, Eric Drew Feldman, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 8. To Talk To You - PJ Harvey, John Parish, Eric Drew Feldman, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 9. The Piano - PJ Harvey, John Parish, Eric Drew Feldman, Jim White, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 10. Before Departure - PJ Harvey, Eric Drew Feldman, Jim White, Nico Brown, Bridget Pearse, Andrew Dickson, Martin Brunsden, Nick Bicat, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 11. The Mountain - PJ Harvey, John Parish, Eric Drew Feldman, Jim White, Mark Ellis, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours |
| 12. Splash Page Live Link - PJ Harvey |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Polly Jean Harvey you hear on White Chalk is not the wild harpy you heard gnashing and wailing on "Sheela-Na-Gig", or the urbane punk stateswoman of 2000’s Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. No, this is another evolution in her singular career--one that sees electric guitar banished to the cobwebbed attic, tight cat-suit covered over by Victorian gown, and Polly’s yearning vocals sounding strangely removed, like they’re being broadcast from another, distant age. Piano is the primary instrument here, augmented by occasional, dusty sounding guitar or other, more esoteric stringed instruments--a sparse, limited musical canvas that places the emphasis on song and lyrics. And while initially, they seem foreboding and slow to open up, repeated spins reveal this to be a set of ghostly power and eerily timelessness. "Dear Darkness" is spacious and supremely measured, Harvey singing of words "tightening around the throat of the one I love", while the harp-accompanied "Grow Grow Grow" is impossibly highly-strung, its pain buttoned-up in constricting corsets and tight bows. Only on the closing "The Mountain" does she approach the cathartic anger of her previous work. But then, White Chalk is something else entirely--an icy English gothic that’s powerful in its choked restraint. --Louis Pattison
Product Description
Serene 2007 album ... her first to be based around piano compositions! Cameos by Jim White (Dirty Three) and Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart).
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
With "White Chalk" PJ Harvey radically changes her style, turning to a quieter, more intimate atmosphere yet the power, the anguish and the intensity are still there with her talent. Songs like Grow Grow Grow and White Chalk itself are amongst her best ever.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
As other reviewers have said, this is a melancholy affair from start to finish (although that description cetainly doesn't do it justice). It might take a few listens for you to get truly drawn into it but my experience was that it's heart wrenchingly delicate and wonderfully raw at the same time.
If you want to get an idea of what it sounds like before you buy, I'd say a cross between Philip Glass, the melancholic side of Grandaddy, the Pretenders, Lou Barlow, Ava Adore era Smashing Pumpkins and PJ Harvey of course. Actually now I've written that, the comparison seem silly - the album is so much more than that - but I'll leave it there in case it's helpful to anyone.
If you want to get an idea of what it sounds like before you buy, I'd say a cross between Philip Glass, the melancholic side of Grandaddy, the Pretenders, Lou Barlow, Ava Adore era Smashing Pumpkins and PJ Harvey of course. Actually now I've written that, the comparison seem silly - the album is so much more than that - but I'll leave it there in case it's helpful to anyone.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Vinyl
Muscially, this one will take some work on the part of the listener. Its true value will become apparent after numerous replays. The best music always strikes me like this at first, so don't be put off.
This edition:
... is vinyl at its best, pressed on solid heavy-grade disc with very low surface noise. Just remember that it plays at 45 rpm, there is no indication of this on the disc, or the sleeve that this full album plays at a non-standard speed. There can be a sound-quality penalty in fitting so much time on a disc when running at this speed.
This edition:
... is vinyl at its best, pressed on solid heavy-grade disc with very low surface noise. Just remember that it plays at 45 rpm, there is no indication of this on the disc, or the sleeve that this full album plays at a non-standard speed. There can be a sound-quality penalty in fitting so much time on a disc when running at this speed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great Songs And Poor Performance
On another website there is footage of PJ performing 'Grow, Grow, Grow' on one of those late night arty French chat shows. Read more
Published 16 months ago by L. C. Warne
Tiresome Gothic ambient moodpiece
It's not a fun, entertaining album. It's also oddly soft from start to finish and completely lacking in her trademark screeching. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2010 by BS on parade
Not a dagger, but a rope
Upon listening to this album in 2007, when it first came out, I immediately realized that there was something special about it, and thought it would continue to speak to me year in... Read more
Published on 24 April 2010 by Vargiu Riccardo James
it grows
"I'm alone amongst my friends in that i really like PJ Harvey, and no-one else i know really does.. I thought Dry was great, Bring You My Love and Stories of the City were both... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2010 by ADAM
Beautifull!
I find it difficult to understand how anybody who knows enough about the artist to buy this album to conclude anything other than the fact it's a true masterpiece. Read more
Published on 2 May 2009 by ADIHEAD
Harrowing
Even for a PJ Harvey fan such as myself, this is a very difficult album to listen to. This album is a collection of often funereal songs, all of which just feature Polly and a... Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2009 by Peter Lee
Wonderous
never heard her before-though she was yet another thrash punk with altitude girl-and then she dons a Sunday Church goin' dress.(or Wedding)? Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2009
Mesmerising
PJ has tapped into something very special on this album. It's haunting, ghostly, and emotional. I've never heard anything quite like it and it's a testament to the sheer talent... Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2009 by D. Miller
An unfulfilled promise ...
You'd be forgiven, PJ fan or not, if you paused the CD during the first track (or many of the following tracks) to go and make a cup of coffee. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2008 by Fingers McGraw
Greater than the sum of its parts
With White Chalk, PJ Harvey has eschewed her trademark dirty guitar / sleazy bass / strident chest vocals combination, and discovered a high soprano range and an instrument called... Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2008 by M. C. Cresswell
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