A little bit of industrial sound enters PJ Harvey’s ever-changing musical vocabulary, and it freaking works. The music devolves at times to the level of almost ambient clanks and bangs of a construction site at night, but then she tosses in a driving guitar song like “C’mon Billy” that shatters the mood and shows you just how much musical range she really has.

PJ Harvey is like one of those lucky people who can learn any language and sound like a local in what seems like no time. Sure, that takes a ton of work, but there’s also a savvy understanding of the nuances of languages that not everybody has, and that’s the true skill that lets them listen and communicate without letting the language get in the way. It’s an ability to both learn academically and intuitively, and then to use that knowledge in a way that seems totally unforced to the outside world. That’s how PJ Harvey sounds to me, with all her musical exploration - explorations in different genres or sounds are just new languages to her, not the end goal, and you’re still getting PJ through the sound no matter what words or instruments or sounds she might be using. It’s hard for a novelist to sound like a local, but when they succeed, it’s a mark of genius.

I loved PJ Harvey’s debut, and I love this even more. There are some experimental sounding tracks that don’t capture me individually, but they are well-used as atmospheric breaks in the narrative of the album and don’t hurt anything, even for my plebian mind that doesn’t want to comprehend abstract music. I get excited for every PJ Harvey album I hear, and you can count on her making a return in this list many more times.

From the roundup Jamwise #48 - Best Albums of 1995.