Music / To Bring You My Love

"You oughta hear my long snake...moan!"

To Bring You My Love is the third studio album by PJ Harvey, released in 1995. Widely seen as one of her best albums, "Down By The Water" and "C'mon Billy" were released as singles and helped her break to the mainstream. The album takes a lot of its inspiration from American Blues music, particularly in its subject matter about rivers, religion and lovers who left. Musically many tracks mimick the intimate sound of these 1920s and 1930s recordings.

Tracklist:

1. "To Bring You My Love" (5:32)
2. "Meet Ze Monsta" (3:29)
3. "Working for the Man" (4:45)
4. "C'mon Billy" (2:47)
5. "Teclo" (4:57)
6. "Long Snake Moan" (5:17)
7. "Down by the Water" (3:14)
8. "I Think I'm a Mother" (4:00)
9. "Send His Love to Me" (4:20)
10. "The Dancer" (4:06)

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I'm... just...troping... for the man:

• A God Am I: "The Dancer" has the male protagonist boast about this:
  Stay with me, touch the face of the true God
• Alliterative Title: "Meet Ze Monsta."
• Blasphemous Boast: "To Bring You My Love"
  I've laid with the devil
  Cursed God above
  Forsaken heaven
  To bring you my love
• Blues: The songs and atmosphere are inspired by 1920s and 1930s blues music.
• Careful with That Axe: Several songs, for example "Long Snake Moan," have Harvey sing pretty darn loud. And then there are her high moans in "The Dancer".
• Creepy Monotone: "Working For The Man" is a hypnotic track where P.J. whispers and moans her vocals very low and close into the mike. Another song in this vein is "I Think I'm A Mother."
• Disappeared Dad: "C'mon Billy," where P.J. sings Billy to come home and meet "his only son", whom she is pregnant with.
• Everything Is an Instrument: In "Meet Ze Monsta" right before the instrumental break and right when the song ends we hear somebody blow into a police whistle.
• Face on the Cover: P.J. floating on water.
• Gratuitous Italian: "The Dancer"
  He said: "Dance for me, fanciulla gentile."
• I Will Wait for You:
  • "C'mon Billy"
  C'mon Billy
  Come to me
  You know i'm waiting
  I love you endlessly
  C'mon Billy
  You're the only one
  Don't you think it's time now
  You met your only son?
  • "Send His Love To Me"
  Lover had to leave me
  Cross the desert plain
  Turned to me his lady
  Tell me "lover wait"
  Calling Jesus, please
  Send his love to me
  • "The Dancer"
  'Cause I've cried days, I've cried nights
  For the lord just to send me home some sign
  Is he near ? is he far ?
  Bring peace to my black and empty heart
• Jump Scare: At the start of "Long Snake Moan" P.J. briefly says "Hmm-hmm," whereupon the song bursts out in all of its loudness. Every first time listener will be startled by this.
• New Sound Album: The album didn't make use of many traditional basslines, but used mostly rumbling organ tones.
• Obsession Song: The woman in "To Bring You My Love" describes she travelled a long way, over dry earth, floods, Hell,high water, mountains, the sea, heaven,... to bring "you my love". She even "laid with the devil, cursed god above and forsake Heaven" for it.
• Offing the Offspring: It is implied in "Down By The Water" that a mother drowned her child and wants it to be brought back to her by the fishes.
• One-Word Title: "Teclo."
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: This is a dark album, where Harvey often sings in a Creepy Monotone and with harsh sounds. "Working For The Man" is almost whispered, while "Down By The Water" has her sing to fishes in the water to "come back here and give me my daughter."
• Record Producer: Flood, John Parish and PJ Harvey.
• Self-Backing Vocalist: "Working For The Man" has P.J. backing herself.
• Shout-Out: The album references Captain Beefheart three times. The Title Track opens with the line "Well, I was born in the desert, came on up from New Orleans", which is similar to Beefheart's opening line on "Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do" from Safe as Milk (1967). The title of "Meet Ze Monsta" is inspired by the line "I'm playing this music/ so the young girls would come out/ to meet the monster tonight" from "Tropical Hot Dog Night" from Beefheart's Shiny Beast (1978). "I Think I'm a Mother" uses the lines "You told her you love her/ so bring her to mother/ You love her, adapt her/ you love her, adapt her/ Adapt her, adapter/ adapt her, adapter" from Beefheart's "Drop-Out Boogie" from Safe as Milk (1967). Harvey's vocal melody at the end of "Teclo" also mirrors Beefheart's melody in "Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles."
• Swallowed Whole: "Working For The Man" ends with P.J. making this kind of sound.
• Title Track: "To Bring You My Love."
  I've travelled over, dry Earth and fleds
  Hell and high water
  To bring you my love

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