PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me

Fifteen years later and we’re still not safe

Harvey’s second album, released in 1993, is a picture of uncompromising female-fronted punk. Imagine the harsh vocal style of the early Mississippi blues singers, removed of any pop varnish, singing not from the heart but from the colon, then bring it right up to date; Harvey has an umbilical cord to the rage of the suppressed and the dispossessed. Put the needle on any of the tracks listed and be very afraid: 50ft Queenie is womanhood screaming at the moon, and that appropriation of male self-confidence spills over into Man-Size, while the title track shovels so much angst into its four-and-a-half minutes you’d be advised to gulp a handful of Prozac before pressing play. This is an album of defiance – harrowing and brilliant.

5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars

Plain Recordings | 514696

Reviewed by Paul Rigby
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