History Music / PJHarvey

* LyricalDissonance: Used frequently, particularly on ''Let England Shake''. See "The Colour of the Earth, for example, a jaunty quite whistle-able major-key guitar tune set to lyrics about man [[WarIsHell hearing his best friend dying alone on the battlefield while crying for help and not being able to do anything about it.]]

* LyricalDissonance: Used frequently, particularly on ''Music/LetEnglandShake''.

* ''White Chalk'' (2007)

* RadioVoice: Used on the first verse of "Highway 61 Revisited", as if to trick the listener into turning up the volume. The second verse, [[JumpScare not so much]].

* WarIsHell: One of the primary themes of ''Let England Shake''.
* WomanScorned: As if the ''title'' of ''Rid of Me'' wasn't a big enough clue...

Among the accolades she has received have been the 2001 and 2011 Mercury Music Prizes (the only Artist to win twice), seven BRIT Award nominations, five Grammy Award nominations and a further two Mercury Music Prize nominations. She was also given an MBE in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours list for "services to music". Rolling Stone named her 1992's Best New Artist and Best Singer Songwriter and 1995's Artist of the Year, and placed two of her albums (''Rid of Me'', ''Music/ToBringYouMyLove'') on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. She was also rated the number one female rock artist by Q magazine in a 2002 reader poll. Harvey has said that she enjoys performing more than writing and recording because performing is when the music "makes more sense".

Throughout her career, Harvey has collaborated with several other musicians, most of them from the AlternativeRock scene, such as: Music/NickCave (contributing vocals to two songs on ''Music/MurderBallads''), Tricky (a song on ''Angels With Dirty Faces''), the band Sparklehorse (lending guitar, bass and backing vocals to two songs from ''It's a Wonderful Life''), Marianne Faithfull (she produced, wrote and performed on five songs from ''Before the Poison''), Mark Lanegan and [[Music/{{Radiohead}} Thom Yorke]] (who sang lead vocals on "This Mess We're In" and provided backing vocals for two other songs from ''Music/StoriesFromTheCityStoriesFromTheSea''). She has also created two albums in collaboration with John Parish, ''Dance Hall at Louse Point'' and ''A Woman a Man Walked By''.

* ''Rid of Me'' (1993)

* CarefulWithThatAxe: And how. Pretty much half of ''Music/RidOfMe'' was this and a good portion of ''To Bring You My Love''.

* LyricalDissonance: Used frequently, particularly on ''Let England Shake''.
* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly

* NiceHat: as of ''Let England Shake'' PJ has been wearing a [[http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/04/18/img_34811_wide.jpg?t=1303160971&s=4 raven headdress]]....thingy at concerts.

* OneWomanSong: "Angelene", "My Beautiful Leah" and "A Perfect Day, Elise", all from ''Is This Desire?''.

* ''Music/IsThisDesire?'' (1998)

* ''Is This Desire?'' (1998)

Harvey formed her first band, named "PJ Harvey", as a teenager with drummer Rob Ellis and bassist Ian Olliver, who soon left and was replaced by Steve Vaughan. Drawing on influences from alt-rock bands like Music/ThePixies and Music/{{Television}}, the contemporary {{Grunge}} movement, blues-rock and Music/CaptainBeefheart, the trio independently released their first album ''Dry'' in 1992. ''Dry'' quickly brought them critical acclaim and attention within the AlternativeRock scene, with ''Magazine/RollingStone'' magazine naming her the year's Best Songwriter and [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Kurt Cobain]] naming ''Dry'' as one of his favourite albums.

* ''Dry'' (1992)

* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: "50 Ft. Queenie"

* CarefulWithThatAxe: And how. Pretty much half of ''Rid of Me'' was this and a good portion of ''To Bring You My Love''.

* CoverVersion: "Music/Highway61Revisited" by Music/BobDylan, "Is That All There Is?" by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, "Wang Dang Doodle" by Howlin' Wolf. There's also the version she did of "[[Music/RollingStones Satisfaction]]" along with Music/{{Bjork}}.

* ShoutOut: This happens all over ''Is This Desire?'', with several songs containing lyrics that allude to various works of fiction. "The Wind" and "Catherine" are both about St. Catherine of Alexandria, the former about her life and the latter from the perspective of the emperor Maxentius, who offered to marry her and beheaded her when she refused.
** "Take your [[Literature/{{Carrie}} dirty pillows]] away from me!" in "Shelia-na-gig".

* SlutShaming: "Sheila-na-gig" is about being slut-shamed by a would-be suitor.

** Her duet with Nick Cave also, where she was the soprano.

Throughout her career, Harvey has collaborated with several other musicians, most of them from the AlternativeRock scene, such as: Music/NickCave (contributing vocals to two songs on ''Music/MurderBallads''), Music/{{Tricky}} (a song on ''Angels With Dirty Faces''), the band Sparklehorse (lending guitar, bass and backing vocals to two songs from ''It's a Wonderful Life''), Marianne Faithfull (she produced, wrote and performed on five songs from ''Before the Poison''), Mark Lanegan and [[Music/{{Radiohead}} Thom Yorke]] (who sang lead vocals on "This Mess We're In" and provided backing vocals for two other songs from ''Music/StoriesFromTheCityStoriesFromTheSea''). She has also created two albums in collaboration with John Parish, ''Dance Hall at Louse Point'' and ''A Woman a Man Walked By''.

** "Take your [[Literature/Carrie dirty pillows]] away from me!" in "Shelia-na-gig".

* CoverVersion: "Music/Highway61Revisited" by Music/BobDylan, "Is That All There Is?" by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, "Wang Dang Doodle" by Music/HowlinWolf. There's also the version she did of "[[Music/RollingStones Satisfaction]]" along with Music{{Bjork}}.

* SlutShaming: "Sheila-na-gig".

* {{Hatedom}}: While she doesn't have a large one, there is a hatedom that thinks that Polly is a rip off of Music/PattiSmith.
** Would also count as a HateDumb, considering PJ said that she had never even heard of Patti Smith before people compared the two.

* NoBudget: Why the video for "Dress" turned out the way it did, as she and the director could only afford to buy and process 12 minutes of film.

* OneWomanSong: "Angelene", "My Beautiful Leah," "A Perfect Day, Elise,"

Throughout her career, Harvey has collaborated with several other musicians, most of them from the AlternativeRock scene, such as: Music/NickCave (contributing vocals to two songs on ''Murder Ballads''), Tricky (a song on ''Angels With Dirty Faces''), the band Sparklehorse (lending guitar, bass and backing vocals to two songs from ''It's a Wonderful Life''), Marianne Faithfull (she produced, wrote and performed on five songs from ''Before the Poison''), Mark Lanegan and [[Music/{{Radiohead}} Thom Yorke]] (who sang lead vocals on "This Mess We're In" and provided backing vocals for two other songs from ''Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea''). She has also created two albums in collaboration with John Parish, ''Dance Hall at Louse Point'' and ''A Woman a Man Walked By''.

* CoverVersion: "Music/Highway61Revisited" by Music/BobDylan, "Is That All There Is?" by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, "Wang Dang Doodle" by Howlin' Wolf. There's also the version she did of "[[Music/RollingStones Satisfaction]]" along with Music{{Bjork}}.

* DuetBonding: Polly had a romantic fling with Music/{{Nick Cave}} around the time she sang "Henry Lee" with him for the album ''Murder Ballads''.

Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English musician hailing from Corscombe, Dorset, known for her darkly humorous, theatrical AlternativeRock sound.

Among the accolades she has received have been the 2001 and 2011 Mercury Music Prizes (the only Artist to win twice), seven BRIT Award nominations, five Grammy Award nominations and a further two Mercury Music Prize nominations. She was also given an MBE in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours list for "services to music". Rolling Stone named her 1992's Best New Artist and Best Singer Songwriter and 1995's Artist of the Year, and placed two of her albums (''Rid of Me'', ''To Bring You My Love'') on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. She was also rated the number one female rock artist by Q magazine in a 2002 reader poll. Harvey has said that she enjoys performing more than writing and recording because performing is when the music "makes more sense".

* ''To Bring You My Love'' (1995)

* ''Uh Huh Her'' (2004)

Harvey formed her first band, named "PJ Harvey", as a teenager with drummer Rob Ellis and bassist Ian Olliver, who soon left and was replaced by Steve Vaughan. Drawing on influences from alt-rock bands like Music/ThePixies and Music/{{Television}}, the contemporary {{Grunge}} movement, blues-rock and Music/CaptainBeefheart, the trio independently released their first album ''Dry'' in 1992. ''Dry'' quickly brought them critical acclaim and attention within the AlternativeRock scene, with ''Rolling Stone'' magazine naming her the year's Best Songwriter and [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Kurt Cobain]] naming ''Dry'' as one of his favourite albums.

Harvey, Ellis and Vaughan signed to Island Records and commenced work on their follow-up album with the help of RecordProducer Steve Albini, hired specifically because he produced Music/ThePixies' ''Surfer Rosa'', an album and band Harvey is a huge fan of. The resulting album, ''Rid of Me'', enjoyed critical acclaim for its harsh, grungy sound and its intense songwriting. Ellis and Vaughan left the band after its release and Harvey continued as a solo artist. Her solo career has largely been defined by experimentation, alternating between blues-influenced guitar-heavy angry PunkRock, catchy pop-rock and subdued, experimental material, all tied together by her darkly humorous lyrics and theatrical performances. She herself has declared that ''when I'm working on a new record, the most important thing is to not repeat myself''.

* ''Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea'' (2000)

* BigApplesauce: ''Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea''

* FemaleGaze: From "This Is Love":
-->"I can't believe life's so complex\\
When I just wanna' sit here and watch you undress"

* CoverVersion: "Music/Highway61Revisited" by Music/BobDylan, "Is That All There Is?" by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller.

* NewSoundAlbum: Every one of them.0

!!Provides examples of:

* DuetBonding: Polly had a romantic fling with Music/{{Nick Cave}} around the time she sang "Henry Lee" with him for the album [[{{MurderBallad}} "Murder Ballads"]].

* NewSoundAlbum: Every one of them.

Among the accolades she has received have been the 2001 and 2011 Mercury Music Prizes (the only Artist to win twice), seven BRIT Award nominations, five Grammy Award nominations and a further Mercury Music Prize nomination. Rolling Stone named her 1992's Best New Artist and Best Singer Songwriter and 1995's Artist of the Year, and placed two of her albums (''Rid of Me'', ''To Bring You My Love'') on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. She was also rated the number one female rock artist by Q magazine in a 2002 reader poll. Harvey has said that she enjoys performing more than writing and recording because performing is when the music "makes more sense".

* CoverVersion: "Highway61Revisited" by Music/BobDylan, "Is That All There Is?" by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller.

* CoverVersion: "Highway 61 Revisited" by Music/BobDylan, "Is That All There Is?" by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller.

Harvey formed her first band, named "PJ Harvey", as a teenager with drummer Rob Ellis and bassist Ian Olliver, who soon left and was replaced by Steve Vaughan. Drawing on influences from alt-rock bands like ThePixies and {{Television}}, the contemporary {{Grunge}} movement, blues-rock and CaptainBeefheart, the trio independently released their first album ''Dry'' in 1992. ''Dry'' quickly brought them critical acclaim and attention within the AlternativeRock scene, with ''Rolling Stone'' magazine naming her the year's Best Songwriter and [[{{Nirvana}} Kurt Cobain]] naming ''Dry'' as one of his favourite albums.

Harvey, Ellis and Vaughan signed to Island Records and commenced work on their follow-up album with the help of RecordProducer Steve Albini, hired specifically because he produced ThePixies' ''Surfer Rosa'', an album and band Harvey is a huge fan of. The resulting album, ''Rid of Me'', enjoyed critical acclaim for its harsh, grungy sound and its intense songwriting. Ellis and Vaughan left the band after its release and Harvey continued as a solo artist. Her solo career has largely been defined by experimentation, alternating between blues-influenced guitar-heavy angry PunkRock, catchy pop-rock and subdued, experimental material, all tied together by her darkly humorous lyrics and theatrical performances. She herself has declared that ''when I'm working on a new record, the most important thing is to not repeat myself''.

Throughout her career, Harvey has collaborated with several other musicians, most of them from the AlternativeRock scene, such as: NickCave (contributing vocals to two songs on ''Murder Ballads''), {{Tricky}} (a song on ''Angels With Dirty Faces''), the band Sparklehorse (lending guitar, bass and backing vocals to two songs from ''It's a Wonderful Life''), MarianneFaithfull (she produced, wrote and performed on five songs from ''Before the Poison''), Mark Lanegan and [[{{Radiohead}} Thom Yorke]] (who sang lead vocals on "This Mess We're In" and provided backing vocals for two other songs from ''Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea''). She has also created two albums in collaboration with John Parish, ''Dance Hall at Louse Point'' and ''A Woman a Man Walked By''.

* CoverVersion: "Highway 61 Revisited" by BobDylan, "Is That All There Is?" by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller.

* DuetBonding: Polly had a romantic fling with {{Nick Cave}} around the time she sang "Henry Lee" with him for the album [[{{MurderBallad}} "Murder Ballads"]].
* {{Hatedom}}: While she doesn't have a large one, there is a hatedom that thinks that Polly is a rip off of PattiSmith.

* {{Homage}}: "Memphis" is one to the late JeffBuckley who was a dear friend of her.

* LyricalDissonance: "Hanging in the Wire" is a soft, peaceful, piano-driven folk song. However, the lyrics of the song describe a soldier in WorldWarOne named Walker, who looks up over the trenches to see the misty wastes of No Man's Land. He sees the corpses of all of his fallen comrades hanging in the barbed wire fence, and as Walker is sent over the top, he himself dies in the barbed wire, joining his fellow dead soldiers. The lyrics then go on to basically say that even though Walker is dead, the war will continue.

* DoubleEntendre: "The Letter" is basically a genderflipped Music/ACDC song in terms of this.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Polly has made a point of saying her upcoming album ''Let England Shake'' is not really political.