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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Polly's finest works, 25 Jun 2001
By A Customer
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.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another dark beauty, 15 Feb 2004
By A Customer
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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
is this desire?, 15 Dec 2005
By A Customer
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. the songs are beautifully crafted - there is a real sense of atmosphere here. this album is unlike any other i've experienced. this is a good thing. polly harvey has made a modern day masterpiece here, i feel, and the range of different forms of desire in all their glory succeed in satisfying upon repeated listens. whether played loud whilst dancing manically to the loud tracks, or listening through headphones to the more delicate songs, the album is uncomfortable and soothing at the same time. it is quite a dark album, but i feel this is the point, as the light side of desire has been played out time and again in other musical forms. it is supposedly a work of fiction, but as the saying goes, everything you can imagine that's happened, has happened and i suspect this is the case here. you are left feeling for characters you've never met, relating to stories too horrific to be true and yet, you end up feeling glad you stopped by.
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