Polyphonic Press - Classic Album Reviews
1,000 essential albums. One random generator. Zero escape. Jeremy Boyd and Jon VanDyk take a deep dive into the records that shaped music history one randomly selected choice at a time. Whether it’s a 60s psychedelic masterpiece or a 90s alternative powerhouse, we break down the lore, drop 5 fast facts, and give you the tracks that actually matter so you can sound like the smartest person at the record store. New episodes every Tuesday.
Polyphonic Press - Classic Album Reviews
Dry by PJ Harvey: The Gritty 1992 Album That Changed Indie Rock
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We’re diving into the fierce, arresting 1992 debut that set the indie rock world on fire: Dry by PJ Harvey. Recorded with a raw, minimalist trio, this album is an explosion of jagged guitars and shape-shifting vocals that confront power, desire, and vulnerability with zero filters.
Inside This Episode:
- First Half Reaction: After the first half, Jeremy and Jon discuss the visceral impact of Harvey’s songwriting. We look at how she flips traditional gender roles and uses minimalism as a musical weapon.
- 5 Fast Facts: We share five gritty facts about the recording of Dry and its immediate impact on the early 90s alternative scene.
- Second Half & Final Thoughts: We finish the record and discuss the enduring legacy of Harvey's self-assured debut.
- The Verdict & Standout Tracks: Jeremy and Jon narrow down their top 3 tracks. Would we spin this one again, or is it too intense for a second go?
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This is Polyphonic Press. The podcast where two music fans pick a classic album completely at random.
SPEAKER_03Hey, welcome to Polyphonic Press. I'm Jeremy Boyd. And uh let's not waste any time. We've got the patented random album generator right in front of us here. Uh so let's hit the button and see what album we're gonna be listening to this week. And the album we're gonna be listening to is PJ Harvey, Dry. Okay. I don't know much about her. I know she's very respected, respected, but I haven't really listened to her. But uh here's a description of the album. It says Dry, released in 1992, is PJ Harvey's fierce and arresting debut album, an explosive arrival that instantly set her apart from every other voice in early 90s alternative rock. Recorded with her original trio, Rob Ellis and Steve Vaughn, this the album is raw, unvarnished, and emotionally unfiltered, driven by jagged guitars, stark arrangements, and Harvey's commanding, shape-shifting vocals. Thematically, Dry plunges into desire, bodily autonomy, vulnerability, and power, often flipping traditional gender roles on their head. Songs like Dress expose the expectations placed on women with biting wit, while Sheila Na Gig merges mythology and sexuality into something both confrontational and darkly humorous. Throughout the album, Harvey wields minimalism like a weapon. The production is rough, the edges deliberately frayed, making every lyric and every tri every tremor in her voice hit with greater force. Despite or because of its grit, Dry sounds remarkably self-assured for a debut. It's visceral, urgent, and unafraid of messy emotions, introducing PJ Harvey as an artist who wouldn't just push boundaries, she would explode them. Over time, the album has uh come to be seen as one of the defining statements of 90s indie rock and a blueprint blueprint for countless artists who followed. Okay. Okay, so this album was released on the 30th of March 1992. Um the genres are alternative rock, indie rock, blues rock, and post punk, and uh was released on two pure records and produced by Head, Rob Ellis, and PJ Harvey. And uh if you're listening along, which we do encourage you to do, uh we've linked the album to both Spotify and Apple Music, and but there isn't really uh side one and side two because it's right when CDs were taking off. So uh it just has 11 songs on the album. So what we'll do is we'll the album starts with the song Oh My Lover, and we'll stop after the fifth song, Happy and Bleeding. Uh so that'll we'll stop at the halfway mark and uh do have the uh halfway discussion. So if you're listening along with us, if you want to stop it after the song Happy and Bleeding, to listen to the uh halfway discussion. But without further ado, okay, here is the first song on the album, Oh my lover. So here we go.
SPEAKER_02My lover, don't you know it's all right? You can love her, you can love me at the same time. Much to discover. I know you don't have the time. Oh my lover. Don't you know it's all the right sweetest. Take that your flesh whatever you can. Oh my sweet thing. Don't you know it's okay and ending uh side one or part one with uh Happy and Bleeding.
SPEAKER_03Um yeah, this is really interesting. I let I really like the stripped-down uh raw production of it. Um it almost sounds like demos or like uh like a high school band who doesn't really know how to record and they're just um just sort of figuring it out and they rented some equipment or something, but it it has that a charm to it that that uh um that I really like about it. It's not it's not definitely not a bad thing. Um because it it it to me it fits the songs perfectly.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um yeah, I was wasn't sure what to think of it at first when I first heard it. Like I've been fiddling with my volume knob a little bit, trying to get things to you know sound right.
SPEAKER_03But uh Yeah, the dynamics are kinda all over the place.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um I don't know if this was her first recording or or what, but uh she's obviously a pretty uh um sophisticated songwriter.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, this is her debut album. For this to be her debut, I mean it that's pretty uh pretty remarkable. Um because yeah, you're right, she is a really um really interesting songwriter, very unusual songwriter. Um I d I've I it's hard to compare her to anybody really. But yeah, she you're right. She is a very uh very she definitely kind of knows what she's doing for sure. Um uh the the one thing that yeah, the the uh as much as I like the production, the first song I did find the the draw I think it was the drums to be a bit harsh on the ears. And I don't know if that was just me. That did kind of bother me, but then I I eventually did kind of settle into it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I was sort of thinking that that last song seemed a little bit quiet in the mix, but there was a lot of interesting things going on, and I kind of wish that maybe the bass was a little bit up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, uh the and well the I th what was I think was the song was the bass was that was the main instrument, and it was way up in the mix, higher than anything else, even the vocals.
SPEAKER_02I still look in me with those angel wings, send me gold, send me a high, standard sky.
SPEAKER_03It's it's it's not that's the charm that I that I think about it. It's like you're kind of it's you're kind of struggling to to hear everything, but it's it has an amateurish quality to it, but but it's that sort of I don't know, I I I do like that I kind of like that it's not perfect. And you know, last week when we were listening to um to uh Peter Gabriel, I I I think that that album is as good as it is, the songwriting is great, but the production is very slick. Um still natural and and but it's it's just uh I don't think this this could maybe use another pass at the at mixing. I don't think there's anything any instruments or anything that really needed to be need to be added or taken away.
SPEAKER_04I just think maybe maybe just another pass at at if I were to compare with to anybody like with that sort of amateurish production sort of thing, I would consider I don't know, I can compare with like the white stripe stuff that came out, you know, towards the end of the decade. But it was well balanced. But everything's got this you know, raw, stripped down sort of throw it at the wall, see what kind of sticks quality to it. But uh but yeah, everything still seemed kind of balanced on this, and and the this one I just another pass of uh at the uh mixing console probably would have done it fairly well, I think. Um but again, that's got nothing to do with her songwriting and her and the ideas she's putting forward, they're all really neat. Um I haven't there's nothing there I would really uh complain about. I don't think there's any like, you know, decisions that she made as far as far as like the music goes um that uh I would disagree with. It's uh yeah, it's definitely different, but it's I find it you know it's it's it's enjoyable, I guess.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I agree. Um you know it's sort of um I guess maybe a fair comparison would be that whole album that we did uh maybe a month ago or so. And uh because it there was I I was reading a little bit about that, and uh there was a movement uh called the Riot Girl Movement. Um basically it was it was basically an underground feminist punk movement that like it's kind of started in the nineties and it was it's like around the like the Washington DC area. Washington DC is is uh for some reason it's a big punk rock uh town. In the when sort of the first wave of punk rock uh happened in the late 70s and it went sort of underground in the 80s, Washington DC was a it was like a hub of uh uh of punk bands for some reason. I don't know. Maybe it had something to do with Ronald Reagan, I don't know. But um but uh but yeah the riot girl scene sort of came out of that and you know it's sort of like a pushback against as much as as as uh you know as as much as I agree with the politics of some of the uh a lot of the punk bands there was it was very it was very male dominated in the early eighties and and sort of the riot girl was sort of a pushback against that and sort of saying like, well no, you know, punk is for women too. We don't have to be like Madonna or anything. We can, you know, we have something to say as well that's that's just as important. And so the the Riot Girl sort of um movement was sort of sort of born out of that that that attitude. So yeah, so it was interesting. So the the although Hull came out of LA and I and um PJ Harvey is is English, um it's still sort of the same um they're still coming from the same place. They're they're they're speaking the same about the same issues, I suppose.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think it's sort of universal.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was just the first time that they really sort of started to sp speak up and and be as aggressive as the the men who were in the punk rock movement. Yeah. So yeah, so even though this isn't really I wouldn't really consider this a a punk thing, it's more of a it's definitely more of a grunge thing, I think. Yeah, more I guess alternative rock. It's not as as hard and aggressive as as punk rock. Um and yeah, but it yeah, the sort of a grunge sort of thing, although grunge wasn't really a genre. It was yeah it it all gets kind of muddy, but yeah, it was there was uh it did well in the early 90s, it fit in very well in the early 90s. Um and yeah, and and is and the the band is playing really well too. I th I like the the musicians, there's three of them. There's uh you got PJ Harvey, Steve Vaughn on bass, and Rob Ellis on drums. And and and Rob Ellis is also the one that uh produced the album. And it's sort of like they although it is her album, they sort of considered themselves a band. Yeah, it was sort of a a band effort, but the band has got her name on it. Yeah, exactly. Kind of like Al Alice Cooper or something. Um but yeah, so far I I'm I am uh enjoying it. Um but uh I did manage to find some uh some interesting facts about the album, and this isn't really a a big surprise, is that it was recorded very quickly and uh locally at Ice House in Ewville. Um PJ Harvey's debut was tracked at a small local studio called The Ice House in Ewville, Somerset, with the trio lineup uh Polly, Gene Harvey, Rob Ellis, and Steve Funn. That scrappy local setting helped give the record its tight raw sound. It wasn't a big budget, glossy production, but an urgent document of a band in the moment. And I have to say, yeah, I think although they should have spent a little more time mixing it, uh it does feel like it's it doesn't feel rushed, but it's like uh I've got something to say and I need to get this out right away. I gotta get my message out right away, because I've I I need, you know, need to get this out. I've got something that I need to get off my chest. It has that sort of feeling about it. Um so not surprising that it was that was recorded relatively quickly. It was recorded um yeah, in in about two months, uh from September to December 1991. This is kind of cool. The the first pressings included demo versions, a collector's detail that points to the album's DIY roots, early copies, the first uh 5,000 LPs and the first 1,000 CDs included demo versions of tracks, underlining how Dry arrived with very little studio polish and more of a get it out now mindset, uh than a deaf refined reissue reissue plan. The choice reinforced the album's raw aesthetic and made those pressings sought after.
SPEAKER_04Um that's interesting. I'm wondering if those are some of the recordings we're hearing now.
SPEAKER_03Um it's possible. I don't think so. I think this is the album. Um yeah, because there was a limited so yeah, it w the the demo recordings were like included as like a bonus disc on um yeah, so I don't think those these are the demo recording, although they do sound like demos.
SPEAKER_04Some of them do, yeah. That's what I'm really wondering about.
SPEAKER_03So um yeah, yeah, I I I would be curious to see how they compare how the demos compare to the f what they uh ended up putting out. I I I don't think it would be that different. Um two of the early singles, Dress and Sheila Na Gig, established the album's confrontational gender themes, drawing on myth and theatricality. Dress, and especially Sheila Na Gig, which is a song we haven't heard yet, uh showcased Harvey's knack for inhabiting characters and flipping sexual scripts. The latter name checks the medieval Sheila Na Gig uh carvings, figures sometimes associated with fertility and exposure, used uh using that image to interrogate exhibitionism, shame, and desire in a way critics called uh part theatrical, part vicious. Um the songs helped frame the album as both provocative and literate. Yeah, that that kind of really uh fits into the uh the Riot Girl um uh not aesthetic, because that makes it seem like it's superficial, but um the ethos, I guess. Ethos, yes. Um so the the record label Too Pure uh backed the record with a very tiny budget, and the band's early gigs were as raw as the record. Uh Two Pure reportedly uh gave PJ Harvey about 2,000 pounds to make the album. Anecdotes from early shows, one promoter paid them to stop playing, uh paint a picture of a band that was uncompromising and mercilessly raw live. Traits that tr uh translated directly into the record's lean, bruising sound. That combination of shoestring funding and feral performance helped create Dry's mythic out of nowhere uh impact. So that's why the album sounds like it does. It's because they only had 2,000 pounds to work with. So which, if you know anything about trying to book studio time, that's really not a lot of money. Um so it's amazing that it got done at all, really. They sort of did it um in this uh yeah, this recording studio in this little town in England.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Although I if I were to go into a studio, I wouldn't have exactly that kind of budget either. I don't know what it'd do.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's true. But you gotta think like if you you would think that like a r a record company who is paying for your album to meet, you would you would think that they would give you more than you know two thousand pounds to make the album. Well, this is a very small record company. But yeah, well, you know, these days you can you don't even need to go to the studio. Um and uh and finally the release made an immediate critical impression um and still reads as a blueprint for Harvey's fearless trajec trajectory. Uh from come contemporary praise to 30th anniversary retrospectives, critics point to Dry as the moment PJ Harvey announced herself, stark, contra confrontational, bluesy, and theatrical in equal measure. Uh the record's impact wasn't only as in singles or sales, but in establishing the artistic persona she would develop across later award-winning albums. Um I have I think I have heard some of her later stuff, and it is a little more it's not polished, but it's a little more um it's a little better balanced. Um obviously having a uh a little more experience. A little more experience, a little bit bigger budget, yeah. That goes a long way for sure. Um so yeah, so those were some uh interesting facts that I found about the album. But uh I guess we'll get back into the uh second half, and uh it starts with a song Sheila Nagig. So uh here we go.
SPEAKER_00Look at these, my work strong. You've got to see my bottle full of charm.
SPEAKER_02I lay it all at your feet, you turn around and say bye to me.
SPEAKER_01Do it, see I'm again my girl. Gonna watch that now I don't like the door Gonna watch that power and my girl turn the corner Gonna watch that power and my girl.
SPEAKER_03Alright, and uh ending the album with water. Yeah, this is um this was interesting, that's for sure. It wasn't uh it wasn't dull. You know, the production, yeah, it could it could be a little a little better, but uh I think the songwriting for this to be your debut album and for the songs to be this strong is really really impressive. It's just really impressive that she was uh I don't know how old she was. She wasn't very old, like maybe uh like twenty? Oh yeah. Twenty-three. Yeah, she was twenty-three when this uh came out. So um so yeah, so it it's it's it's just it it's it's incredible that she was so young and and obviously had a a a knack for writing really incredible and honest songs. Uh not just songs, not just pop songs, but songs that that are that are real, that are just from an honest place. Um just uh from an a pure like artistic sort of thing. Um yeah, it's it's just really it's really incredible this is that this is her debut album. Production, yeah, I can believe it, but the songwriting quality is is she's wise beyond her years.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, I I I would say um overall the the production seemed to be a little bit on the quiet side, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Um when it's it's steady and it seemed to be pretty steady in the later half of the album. Um it was a little all over the place on the first half. Um but uh it uh still on the quiet side, but but yeah, it it it sort of straightened itself out after a little while, and uh and and again, the songs are really good. Um Yeah, and and it's interesting how how a lot of these artists just seem to write songs that sort of fit into the zeitgeist of the time. Like she's not writing songs that sound like they're from another time or anything like that. They sound very much Well, I don't want to say they're strictly of their time, because they're there's a certain amount of timelessness to it, but it's definitely it's got that early 90s sort of thing going for it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's almost like she's uh it's almost like she's creating that sound in a way, you know. I mean, I I I I know it's it's sort of been there like she's not the first artist to to to fit in with that, but it's almost like she's uh one of the pioneers of that early 90s sort of style, you know? Um but yeah, you're right. It she it doesn't it doesn't feel like she's you know, like I I I just it doesn't feel like she's writing from a different time, you're right. I it it it I think it may be a a generational thing. I and I hate that these these days we divide everything by generations, but it like the early 90s Generation X thing there is a definite sort of people call it slacker, but it's not slackers, it's it's uh sort of uh apathetic. From the outside it looks apathetic, but it's really more I think burnt out from from the world that had been happening at that time. And I think it was just like a I don't think anybody planned to m to create a sound that was that. I think they were just it was m just people were just being honest, and the s sound sort of came out of that frustration that that everybody was feeling.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I think to an extent you sort of see that again uh nowadays. Yeah, history repeats itself and uh yeah, it's that that sort of not apathetic, not quite, but burnt out definitely sort of, you know, purveys through the ages. Um But yeah, I thought it was a pretty good uh overall it's a pretty good album.
SPEAKER_03So Yeah. And you know, I think the if I can say one one more thing about the production is one thing I do like about it is that there's not a lot of effects. And oh, it's like nothing.
SPEAKER_04It's basically just it's very stripped out. It it feels almost like uh sort of a live show. There's barely any effects on their guitars, maybe a little bit of overdrive or something like that, just uh Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um no no pun intended, but it is very dry. And um, you know, it's i if yeah, you're right. It feels like you're not even uh uh seeing them live. It's it's like uh you're seeing them play in your living room or something. Um but anyway, we could go on about that, but uh what uh what would be your three uh highlights on the album?
SPEAKER_04It was sort of tough, but there was a pretty good run in the to where in at the beginning of the second half, like Sheila Nagig, Hare and Joe. I thought that was pretty good. That caught that kept my interest uh up pretty well. So I think those three songs are probably my favorites.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I would say yeah, Sheila Nagig definitely. Um I really like the last song Water. And um yeah, I I think I liked uh Happy and Bleeding too. I think those were probably my I like I like the I like the song itself, not necessarily the uh the production, but uh yeah, I I those would be my my picks. Um so yeah, I guess that brings us to the question is would you listen to this album again? Um I believe so.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, probably. I wouldn't listen to it a lot, but uh you know, to to put it on once in a while, it's it's uh if I'm in the mood for something from this era or something like that, this is a pretty good one to turn to.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I agree. I I I think I feel the same way. Um yeah, if if I'm you know have uh in the mood for for something early 90s alternative, this would be in that rotation for sure. Um yeah, uh yeah, I would definitely listen to this. Um yeah, so I think we'll uh end the episode there. Uh thank you so much for listening. If you made it this far, uh we would love to hear from you. If you want to drop us a line, you can do that by going to our uh contact page on the website, uh polyphonicpress.com slash contact. And uh while you're on the website, you can get all these past episodes that we've done so far and uh any updates and and anything like that. And um if you feel inclined to help us out, you can do that by going to our Patreon, go to patreon.com slash polyphonic press. And you can if this is your first time uh listening to it, uh give us a rating and review and follow the show uh wherever you're listening uh on all the podcast platforms. And I think that just about does it. I'm Jeremy Boyd, I'm John Van Dyke. Take it easy.