White Chalk (Exclusive Edition)
PJ Harvey
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| Name | Artist | Time | Price | ||
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1 |
The Devil | PJ Harvey | 2:55 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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2 |
Dear Darkness | PJ Harvey | 3:09 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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3 |
Grow Grow Grow | PJ Harvey | 3:21 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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4 |
When Under Ether | PJ Harvey | 2:22 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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5 |
White Chalk | PJ Harvey | 3:06 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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6 |
Broken Harp | PJ Harvey | 1:57 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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7 |
Silence | PJ Harvey | 3:05 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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8 |
To Talk to You | PJ Harvey | 4:00 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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9 |
The Piano | PJ Harvey | 2:36 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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10 |
Before Departure | PJ Harvey | 3:45 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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11 |
The Mountain | PJ Harvey | 3:10 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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12 |
Wait (Bonus Track) | PJ Harvey | 2:17 | Album Only | View In iTunes |
| Total: 12 Songs |
iTunes Review
White Chalk is a quick, quiet piano-based song cycle. Unlike the majority of PJ Harvey’s catalog, there are no pounding rhythms. The drums, provided by the Dirty Three’s Jim White, are most often muted, and Harvey herself abandons any instinct to shriek for the pleasures of seductive coo-ing. Guitars have been packed and none of the garage rock clang from her previous album, Uh Huh Her, has been invited to participate. Harvey begins with “The Devil,” singing high in her range, words forming in vague combinations, the piano repeating its patterns obsessively. “Dear Darkness” is swallowed up by a large church reverb and a choir of voices that lend a solemn spirituality to the majestic melody. Many of the songs segue into one another and the flow is much like what the titles suggest: “The Piano,” “Silence,” “Broken Harp,” “When Under Ether.” The album’s closer, “The Mountain,” is the sound of marking time, the piano notes closing down the show as Harvey escapes through a hole in the sky. A low-key but affecting work.
Customer Reviews
Harvey tries something new. I like it.
If you've known PJ Harvey for years, you probably see her as this rock goddess, Gibson Firebird in hand, just shouting into the microphone, hypnotizing everyone. White Chalk takes her guitar away; she learned how to play the piano, and used it to write this album, her eighth. It's going to alienate some of her fans, but I think it's brilliant. The theatrical element of PJ Harvey dressing like this 1850s Victorian widow brings back a lot of the theatrical element of To Bring you My Love, and the darkness in her words evokes feelings she raised on Is This Desire? Lyrically it's a lot darker than Uh Huh Her or Stories from the City - Stories from the Sea. (Song's like, Broken Harp, To Talk to You, Before Departure, are brilliantly sad.) But that darkness provides the album with it's greatest strength. One of my favourites on the album has to be the title track, "White Chalk," which is an ode to Dorset, where she was born and grew up. With lines like, "I go paddling by the surf/on a path cut 1500 years ago" you can feel the history in her voice and it's powerful. The thing about White Chalk is that the first time you listen to it, it will seem like it's dragging by the end of it. It's an aquired taste, if you will. It's biggest fault is that while it is brilliant, it seems almost one-dimentional at times. White Chalk triumphs by proving that PJ is still a rock goddess, even without her electric guitar.
Best Album of the year / Meilleur disque de l'année
I have never been a huge PJ Harvey fan but I fell completely in love with that album. The songwriting there is so strong. The tunes are magical and mysterious. You will not recognize her voice at all and there is no electric guitar on it because she did learn the piano. All is strange but beautiful. The Mountain made me falling from my chair. Je n'ai jamais été un grand fan de PJ Harvey mais je suis tombé completement en amour avec ce disque. Les pièces sont si bien écrites ! Tout est très mystérieux, noir et magique à la fois. Il est impossible de reconnaître la voix à la première écoute car elle chante plus haut qu'à l'habitude et elle a délaissé les guitares électriques au profit d'un vieux piano. Étrange et magnifique à la fois. It is a bit where I would like to see Tori Amos at the moment. C'est là que j'aimerais voir Tori Amos aujourd'hui. If you like Nico, it is a must. Un must pour ceux qui aiment Nico.
Best album of 2007
Anyone interested in PJ Harvey will know that this album is a diversion from her earlier stuff (of which only Uh Huh Her has really resembled this decade). I was always a fan, but this album definitely gave me a new found respect for the immense talent PJ Harvey possesses. She doesn't just sing from the heart; she sings from that visceral space that only those who have truly experienced loss (no matter how transient) can call upon.
Biography
Born: October 09, 1969 in Yeovil, England
Genre: Rock
Years Active: '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s
Top Albums and Songs By PJ Harvey
| Name | Album | Time | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1 |
Down by the Water | To Bring You My Love | 3:14 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
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2 |
The Mess We're In | Stories from the City - Stories from the Sea | 3:57 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
3 |
To Bring You My Love | To Bring You My Love | 5:33 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
4 |
Black Hearted Love | A Woman a Man Walked By | 4:35 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
5 |
Long Snake Moan | To Bring You My Love | 5:15 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
6 |
You Said Something | Stories from the City - Stories from the Sea | 3:19 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
7 |
C'mon Billy | To Bring You My Love | 2:50 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
8 |
Let England Shake | Let England Shake | 3:09 | $1.29 | View In iTunes |
|
9 |
Rid of Me | Rid of Me | 4:28 | $0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
10 |
The Last Living Rose | Let England Shake | 2:21 | $1.29 | View In iTunes |
- $9.99
- Genres: Alternative, Music, Rock, Adult Alternative
- Released: Oct 02, 2007
- ℗ 2007 Universal Island Records Ltd. A Universal Music Company.
