“I Inside the Old Year Dying” , the latest release from PJ Harvey, For a while back there it looked like we had lost PJ Harvey to the realm of poetry, the documentary field trips to Kosovo and Afghanistan which inspired her previous album “The Hope Six Demolition Project” awakening new ways of writing and the following world tour draining her enthusiasm for music.
Last summer, she made her first Scottish appearance in years – at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, to promote a poetry collection conceived under the mentorship of Don Paterson. But a rekindling of her musical spirit was already underway and her first album in seven years is another creative volte-face, as Harvey switches from the macro concerns of “Let England Shake” and “The Hope Six Demolition Project” to a micro folk world drawn in archaic language with improvised arrangements and field recording embellishments from longtime collaborators Flood and John Parish.
On “I Inside the Old Year Dying”, Harvey uses the extremes of her vocal range – her haunting higher register and an androgynous alto – but it is what she is uttering that is most alluring and unsettling. Did she really just sing “speak your worldle to me” in the falsetto blues of Prayer at the Gate? It transpires that there are many more intriguing wordles where that came from – for example, “tree-tears” are leaves and “nuts” means “joy” (but also “testicles”).
Ancient rubs up against modern – the damsel protagonist of “Lwonesome Tonight” carries “in her satchel Pepsi fizz” – as Harvey draws on the folklore of her native Dorset and weaves in biblical, historical and Shakespearean references into a woozy bucolic landscape populated by a council of birds and a recurring character called Wyman Elvis.
There is plenty to unpick if you wish; alternatively, just follow Harvey in revelling in the sounds of words as much as the meaning and the joys of witchy blues she conjures. The stridently strummed acoustic guitar of the title track is something to hold on to, a breadcrumb trail back to previous work – the ethereal ambience of “White Chalk” being the closest relative to this intoxicating comeback from an artist always one step ahead.
Polly Jean Harvey – vocals, electric guitar John Parish – acoustic guitar, drums, vocals Cecil – keyboards, field recordings Colin Morgan – backing vocals
‘I Inside the Old I Dying’ is taken from the new album ‘I Inside the Old Year Dying’, out July 7th on Partisan Records:
The Fat Angel Sings 