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Is This Desire?

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Is This Desire?
Two sepia images of a woman beside a river. Black text in block capitals above the images read "PJ Harvey" and handwritten text in block capitals underneath the images reads "Is This Desire?".
Studio album by
PJ Harvey
Released28 September 1998 (1998-09-28)
RecordedApril 1997 (1997-04)–1998 (1998)
Studio
Genre
Length40:24
LabelIsland
Producer
PJ Harvey chronology
Dance Hall at Louse Point
(1996) 		Is This Desire?
(1998) 		Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
(2000)
Singles from Is This Desire?
  1. "A Perfect Day Elise"
    Released: 14 September 1998
  2. "The Wind"
    Released: 11 January 1999

Is This Desire? is the fourth studio album by the English musician PJ Harvey, released on 28 September 1998 on Island Records. It was re-released on vinyl LP in late January 2021. A separate demo compilation of tracks from the album titled Is This Desire? - Demos was also released on vinyl LP and CD.

Background

[edit]

Recorded on and off in Somerset and London between April 1997 and April 1998, it was co-produced by Flood, Head and Harvey herself, and featured instrumental contributions from Rob Ellis, John Parish, Mick Harvey, Eric Drew Feldman, Joe Gore and Jeremy Hogg. It marked a move away from Harvey's earlier guitar-driven rock style into subtler, quieter, atmospheric soundscapes and mood pieces based around keyboards, bass and electronics.

Harvey spoke about the making of the album in an interview with Filter magazine in 2004, indicating it was the project of which, to date, she was proudest. "Again working with Flood, again trying to find new ground, but a particularly difficult time in my life. So, it was a very, very difficult, difficult record to make and still one I find very difficult to listen to, but probably my favorite record that I've made because it had a lot of guts. I mean, I was making extremely difficult music, experimenting with techniques I hadn't used before and not really caring what other people thought about it. I'm quite proud of that one." She also told The Telegraph, "I do think Is This Desire? is the best record I ever made—maybe ever will make—and I feel that that was probably the highlight of my career. I gave 100 per cent of myself to that record. Maybe that was detrimental to my health at the same time."

John Parish reflected on the album's recording in 2021: "[Is This Desire?] is probably the most compromised album that Polly's made, largely to do with the time over which it was made ... There were two long recordings sessions and almost a year's gap between them. The bulk of the first session took place in a small studio in Yeovil, so it was much more Heath Robinson setup, and the second session, most or all of it took place in a huge expensive London studio, so there were differences in the technical capabilities of the studio, but the same musicians basically in both sessions and same producers and engineers. It’s very difficult to sustain the identity of a record like that. It was also the only record where the record company came in and had a degree of creative input, which had never been sanctioned on any of the other records, certainly none of the other records I was involved with. The record company often never heard anything until they got the mastered album! ... on this album there were a couple of people who I felt took advantage of the fact Polly wasn't very well at that time. Normally she's so decisive and strong about what she feels, about what's going to happen, but on that record she wavered in the middle."[5]

It is the first PJ Harvey album to feature lyrics printed on the inner sleeve.

The song "The Wind" was inspired by Saint Catherine, and in particular St Catherine's Chapel, Abbotsbury.[6][7] The lyrics discuss the chapel's location on top of a hill, and end with an inversion of a traditional prayer which women used at the chapel to pray for a husband.[6][8] The village of Abbotsbury is near PJ Harvey's home.[9]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[10]
Entertainment WeeklyA[11]
The Guardian[12]
Los Angeles Times[2]
NME6/10[13]
Pitchfork8.0/10[14]
Q[15]
Rolling Stone[1]
Spin8/10[16]
The Village VoiceA−[17]

The album was met with critical acclaim. Q magazine praised the record as "one of the most artfully truncated missives of bleakness and pain to have emerged ... since the dawn of CD",[15] CMJ called it "another milestone in her already illustrious career", and Entertainment Weekly said it "seethes with hypnotic power";[11] the magazine Dazed & Confused claimed "Is This Desire? will be a classic of the next 10 if not 20 years. It has the impeccable timing of jazz, the arrangement of a classic dance track, the depth of an orchestral symphony and the emotional charge of gospel."[citation needed] It received a Grammy Award nomination as Best Alternative Music Performance of 1998.[18] Although it did not sell as well as her 1995 commercial breakthrough To Bring You My Love, it did spawn her biggest UK hit with the single "A Perfect Day Elise"; a second single, "The Wind", charted on the UK Top 30.[citation needed]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by PJ Harvey.

No.TitleLength
1."Angelene"3:34
2."The Sky Lit Up"1:50
3."The Wind"4:04
4."My Beautiful Leah"2:00
5."A Perfect Day Elise"3:06
6."Catherine"4:05
7."Electric Light"3:04
8."The Garden"4:11
9."Joy"3:40
10."The River"4:52
11."No Girl So Sweet"2:45
12."Is This Desire?"3:25
Total length:40:24

Personnel

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All personnel credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[19]

Charts

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Chart (1998) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Albums Chart[20] 30
Belgian Albums Chart (Vl)[21] 8
Belgian Albums Chart (Wa)[21] 50
Canadian Albums Chart[22] 59
Dutch Top 100[23] 74
French SNEP Albums Chart[24] 9
Norwegian Albums Chart[25] 5
Swedish Albums Chart[26] 19
UK Albums Chart[27] 17
US Billboard 200[28] 54

Singles

[edit]
Year Single Peak chart positions
AUS CAN
[29] 		FRA
[24] 		UK
[27] 		US Mod
[28]
1998 "A Perfect Day Elise" 83 15 70 25 33
1999 "The Wind" — — — 29 —

Certifications and sales

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
France (SNEP)[30] Gold 100,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[31] Silver 60,000^
United States — 164,000[32]
Summaries
Worldwide — 500,000[33]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Sheffield, Rob (15 October 1998). "P.J. Harvey: Is This Desire?". Rolling Stone. No. 797. pp. 128–129. Archived from the original on 12 November 2007. Retrieved 28 June 2004.
  2. ^ a b Boehm, Mike (27 September 1998). "Four-Star Performers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
  3. ^ Woodhouse, Alan (12 September 2005). "PJ Harvey: London Shepherd's Bush Empire". NME. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  4. ^ Thompson, Stephen (29 March 2002). "PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 22 December 2015. |
  5. ^ "A Woman, A Man: John Parish's Favourite PJ Harvey Recordings". Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  6. ^ a b "The Legend of St Catherine". Retrieved 19 March 2009.[permanent dead link‍]
  7. ^ "god_stcat". Archived from the original on 9 August 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
  8. ^ "St Catherine's Chapel, Abbotsbury". britainexpress.com. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
  9. ^ Harris, John (27 September 2007). "Songs of innocence and experience". The Guardian. Film & Music p. 10. Retrieved 19 March 2009. Posted on 28 September 2007.
  10. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Is This Desire? – PJ Harvey". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 June 2004.
  11. ^ a b Weingarten, Marc (2 October 1998). "Is This Desire?". Entertainment Weekly. No. 452. p. 74. Archived from the original on 7 August 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2009.
  12. ^ Sullivan, Caroline (25 September 1998). "She thing". The Guardian.
  13. ^ Oldham, James (22 September 1998). "PJ Harvey – Is This Desire?". NME. Archived from the original on 15 November 1999. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  14. ^ Fowler, Shan. "PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 14 October 2000. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  15. ^ a b Eccleston, Danny (November 1998). "PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?". Q. No. 146. p. 120. Archived from the original on 3 June 2000. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  16. ^ Vowell, Sarah (November 1998). "PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?". Spin. Vol. 14, no. 11. pp. 132, 134. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  17. ^ Christgau, Robert (15 December 1998). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  18. ^ "Artist: PJ Harvey". Grammy. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  19. ^ Is This Desire? (CD). PJ Harvey. Island Records. 1998. LC 0407.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  20. ^ "PJ Harvey – Is This Desire?". australian-charts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  21. ^ a b "PJ Harvey – Is This Desire?". Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  22. ^ "RPM Top 100 CDs – November 16, 1998" (PDF). RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  23. ^ "PJ Harvey – Is This Desire?". dutchcharts.nl. Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  24. ^ a b "Discographie PJ Harvey". lescharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  25. ^ "PJ Harvey – Is This Desire?". norwegiancharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  26. ^ "PJ Harvey – Is This Desire?". swedishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  27. ^ a b "PJ Harvey | Artist". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  28. ^ a b Is This Desire? – PJ Harvey: Awards at AllMusic. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  29. ^ "RPM Alternative 30 – November 2, 1998" (PDF). RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  30. ^ "French compilation certifications – PJ Harvey – Is This Desire" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
  31. ^ "British album certifications – PJ Harvey – Is This Desire?". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  32. ^ "Ask Billboard". Billboard. 27 December 2005. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  33. ^ Dickson, Ian (13 February 1999). "U.K. Focus". Billboard. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
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