I've been trying to show you over and over

I heart PJ Harvey.

As a teenager learning how to sing, Sarah McLachlan taught me how to sigh, and Tori Amos taught me how to squeal -- but PJ taught me how to wail. She’s been my favourite artist for the past 12 years, ever since I bought Rid of Me in 1994. Whereas other favourites have fallen to the wayside (e.g. Sarah McLachlan), PJ has persisted. I love absolutely everything she does, so of course I ran out and got The Peel Sessions as soon as it was released this week. I even had the date marked down on my calendar.

The tracklist is interesting: out of 12 tracks, four are from her first album, Dry, four are B-sides, and the remaining four represent all her albums save for To Bring You My Love, which was probably her most commercially successful (or at least well-promoted to the masses) album. In fact, none of the tracks are particularly well-known, save for "Sheela-Na-Gig".

I have to confess that I was a bit disappointed by this album. I was expecting slightly different renditions of her songs, but it isn’t until halfway through that we hit unfamiliar territory. (One-third of the way, if you’re unfamiliar with B-sides “Naked Cousin” and “Wang Dang Doodle”.)

Some poking about the internet, however, revealed the significance of the first four tracks being off of Dry: they were recorded in 1991, during PJ’s first session with John Peel at the BBC, when she was just emerging as an artist. That would certainly explain why they sound so close, if not identical, to the album recordings. Her first album was so stripped down anyway that the minimal arrangements afforded by the BBC studio made no difference.

But then we get to “Losing Ground” (a B-side from the “That Was My Veil” single), and it’s a different arrangement. And “This Wicked Tongue” was only ever available on the UK and Japan releases of Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. So a few surprises for those of us who are too lazy to search for clandestine mp3s.

The Peel Session treatment works best with the last two songs, though: “Beautiful Feeling” and “You Come Through” are much more powerful than their studio release versions in the semi-impromptu setting. Reason enough to buy the album if you’re a fervent PJ fan.

PJ Harvey website
Peel Sessions on Wikipedia
The top 125 Peel Sessions (He discovered Camera Obscura 5 years before I did. Damn, he was good.)