PJ Harvey

Raised on a rural sheep farm in deepest Dorset, Polly Jean Harvey (aka PJ Harvey) – born on October 9, 1969 - grew up listening to Howlin' Wolf, Jimi Hendrix and Captain Beefheart records before later discovering the Pixies and the US alternative movement. Helped by the championing of Radio 1 DJ John Peel, debut album Dry (1992) introduced her as a raw, uncompromising alt. rock queen, straining with stripped-to-the-bone honesty. The primal growl and bluesy sleaze of the Steve Albini-produced follow-up Rid Of Me (1993) became a number 3 hit in the UK before To Bring You My Love (1995) made a breakthrough in America. Constantly evolving and creating new musical personas, Is This Desire? (1998) experimented with ambient, electronic soundscapes, before the rush of pop/rock hooks on Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (2000) won PJ Harvey the Mercury Music Prize. A more tender side emerged on the lo-fi Uh Huh Her (2004) and she taught herself piano for the ethereal, haunting ballads on White Chalk (2007). Collaborations with Bjork, Nick Cave, Josh Homme, and John Parish have punctuated a startling catalog of work and PJ Harvey continued to shape-shift and explore new musical paths. She shifted away from the piano-led sounds of White Chalk and embraced a different aural assault for 2011’s Mercury Prize-winning Let England Shake, still retaining her unique style and sense of melody. She followed the album five years later with The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016), which climbed to number 1 in the UK. In 2020, PJ Harvey began releasing a series of demo releases that focused on each of her original albums. The first release, Dry – Demos, was issued in 2020 and was followed by demo collections that focused on other albums including To Bring You My Love, Stories from the City Stories from the Sea, White Chalk, and others. In 2023, PJ Harvey released her 10th studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying.

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