Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

STORIES FROM THE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA
 
 
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea  is the fifth studio album by English alternative rock musician PJ Harvey, released on 23 October 2000 by Island Records.  Recorded during March to April 2000, it contains themes of love that are tied into Harvey’s affection for New York City.  The album became the second major commercial success of her recording career, following her successful breakthrough To Bring You My Love (1995).  Upon its release, the album received acclaim from most music critics and earned Harvey several accolades, including the 2001 Mercury Prize.  It is generally regarded as one of her best works.  In the updated version of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, it was ranked at #431.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

My favorite PJ Harvey album thus far (and also the first one that I purchased, though I had heard about her for years), Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (2000) is drawn from a six-month sojourn in New York City in 1999.  I had been thinking that the album was her response to 9/11; it was actually released before that horrific date, but there is a sense of impending doom on many of these songs, particularly on “One Line” and her duet with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, “This Mess We’re In”.  PJ Harvey’s thrilling video for “This Is Love” is what originally grabbed me; the song has the memorable lyric:  “I can’t believe life is so complex / When I just want to sit here and watch you undress.”  

 

For years, I couldn’t play Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea often enough or loud enough.  The opening track, “Big Exit” became the song that I lived by for a long time:  “I met a man /  He told me straight /  ‘You gotta leave /  It’s getting late’ /  Too many cops /  Too many guns /  All trying to do something /  No-one else has done” (though I heard the last line as “I’m trying to do something no one else has done”). 

 

(January 2014)