SOUNDTRACK: PJ HARVEY-Is This Desire? (1998).
After the (to me) disappointing To Bring You My Love, PJ Harvey came back with Is This Desire? This disc seems like it took the techniques she explored on To Bring and added more structure to her songs. Harvey’s songs are by nature minimalist, and that’s why I found To Bring disappointing: it was too minimal. She fleshes things out here–there’s a kind of Nick Cave quality to the disc as well, especially on the opener “Angeline.” (She had sung with Cave on his then recent disc)).
These first two songs show an amazing range. “The Sky Lit Up” has some odd guitar effects and some crazy screams later in the song. It’s less than 2 minutes long. As is “My Beautiful Leah,” which is over the top noisy and distorted. It’s as sinister a song as Harvey has written. “The Wind” has a wonderful whispered vocal, but it is dynamic and allows her quiet background music to forge its own path). The harmony vocals are a very nice touch.
But it’s “A Perfect Day Elise” that shows that for all of Harvey’s textures and sounds, she really is a singles writer. This is a noisy track, but the chorus is simply beautiful. A fantastic anthem for the late 90s.
But then the disc takes a turn for the ethereal. “Catherine” and “Electric Light” are quiet, creepy numbers that never really engage. “The Garden” tries to come out of this quiet, and manages somewhat. “Joy” is another of Harvey’s spookier songs (she can do insane things with her voice) that is filled with anguish.
After these tracks, Harvey returns to the earlier style of the disc, with the beautiful, haunting (but not creepy) “The River.” “No Girl So Sweet” follows with a noisy short track utilizing some techno aspects and a lot of distortion. Harvey rocks this song very hard with some great vocals, too.
The final track is “Is This Desire?” It opens with just drums and Harvey’s voice. It builds in complexity until it reaches a delicate chorus. It’s a really beautiful, if not dark, song an a nice ending to a CD that is something of a mixed bag.
[READ: March 23, 2011] “Pride”
I tend to read a lot of peculiar short stories. So every once in a while, I really enjoy reading a story that is simply about a person or two trying to get by. And if you ever want to read stories about simple human connection, Alice Munro is the way to go!
This story confused me at first because I normally assume that the protagonist of Munro’s stories is going to be female. This one didn’t state one way or another for a few paragraphs, so I was reading him as a girl (especially since he was talking about another girl in his town).
But no, it is about a boy. It opens in the 1920s in a small town in Canada. The protagonist is a poor but reasonably happy boy–with a harelip. The girl he is talking about is named Oneida (an unusual name that did not catch on in town). Oneida’s family is wealthy. Like in a class by themselves wealthy. Until, that is, her father makes a bad investment (with his bank’s money) in steam automobiles and loses more than his money.
The story then follows the protagonist through the years until he finds himself reunited with Oneida. They become friends and find out that they have similar interests. The two of them wind up spending a lot of time together, but since he has a “handicap” no one thinks that anything untoward is going on, really. There’s no gossip. He enjoys her company very much, but in many ways he resents the idea that everyone sees him as asexual.
It’s not even fully apparent that he wants to be a sexual being, but his pride is hurt that no one, not even Oneida, can seem to think of him that way. And, as pride will do, it causes him to say and do things that not only risk their friendship, but that very directly alter his own life.
As with lots of Munro, the stakes are small and yet they feel very real. And I found myself saying “What are you doing, you fool?” more than once.
More excellence from Alice Munro.
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