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PJ Harvey | Stories From The City, Stories From The

CD, Island/Universal

Tekst: Ariën Rasmijn

Publicatiedatum: 27 oktober 2000

It's raining in the city. It's very late, later than you used to allow yourself to be out on a weeknight, and you're drunk, smiling, almost singing, almost home. Your heart has stopped racing for the first time since forever, and you're in love. The two of you met on the rooftop, at the party. The air was warm, humid. It was going to pour like in the Bible, but not yet. Your eyes met exactly 15 times, and you had five drinks before the introductions could even take place. PJ Harvey's latest was bellowing from the speakers. A mutual friend (self-appointed know-it-all rock critic, good to borrow records from but still very much the smelly geek) joined the conversation and started yapping about how much more sparse and effective the new record sounds and how fabulous the guy from Radiohead was on backing vocals. "She's really returned to her roots, the operatic drama is just about gone yet the opening track is such a beautifully paranoid call to arms blahblahblah." Rockboy in his quasi-ironic Metal Up Your Ass t-shirt was more busy listening to himself talk anyway as the two of you were casually looking at each other in mutual understanding that a change of decor was needed to get to talk of matters you both were more curious about. All this while the compact, punchy strength of the songs, the tone and intensity of Polly Jean's voice, the jangle of her guitar and her new-found, yet still rather uneasy peace of mind the lyrics referred to were hitting the shores of your fading sobriety on a level more direct than any pundit could describe. You were more than ready to make use of your good fortune, just like Polly would in track two. You heard the line "all I need is you tonight" somewhere during track four, and even though that may or may not have covered the theme of the song entirely, let alone your intentions at that moment, you kept on repeating it in your head as the two of you stepped inside, picking up two glasses and a bottle of red on your way to the couch. The two of you asked the host as he passed by what the name of the song was that came on next. 'Beautiful Feeling' he said, bored. He gave you something of a slight wince as he saw the bottle and the full wine glasses on the floor, then proceded to refill the dip. As the night went on and the record was played once more before being changed you talked and talked about everybody in the room, some things in your lives. Then the ugly friend that always seems to come with the package barged in, insisting on leaving for another party. One you weren't invited to. You're still outside, the sewers are now overflowing, and small items of trash are white-water rafting in the gutter. You're wet, cold and hell-bent on buying that record as soon as you get the chance tomorrow, as well as finding out the telephone number you somehow lost on your way out the door.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/pj-harvey/stories-from-the-city-stories-from-the/192/
Meer PJ Harvey op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/pj-harvey