Arts & Entertainment
 

Harvey utilizes simple sounds for ‘Uh Huh Her'

Critics cast critiques too quickly, miss heart

By Jason Gagnon
The Daily Cougar

Although most of the world was disappointed with Liz Phair's last album, it is impossible to conceive a similar reception to fellow indie goddess Polly Jean Harvey's latest record. She performed on the Queens of the Stone Age's Desert Sessions CD and shot a video for the song "Crawl Home."

Music fans haven't been given a truly astounding breakup record in years, which makes Uh Huh Her all the more special. Harvey slices open her scars to reveal her wounds for listeners to examine in all their gruesome detail.

While it's a bit more sonically calm than her underground classic Rid of Me, at times listeners are given lovely doses of rockin', sludgy blues ("Cat on the Wall") and maximum piss and vinegar ("W.T.F."). With its mostly soothing sounds, Uh Huh Her becomes wonderfully beguiling, allowing fans to achieve a state of tranquility that lessens defenses as Harvey's stories of heartbreak and disappointment wash over them, seeping in through their pores until they practically have her despair coursing through their veins like a hot dose of pure soul.

This is certainly an album that embraces minimalist production, focusing more on the actual song than window dressing. Harvey allows herself to indulge in beautiful multiple-instrument arrangements and some slight techno-pop tendencies ("The Slow Drug") to produce stellar songs that never feel like they're at odds with the overall record. It's like the perfect sonic template for any breakup, no matter how pleasant or painful it may be. The songstress is careful not to drag her songs out to the point of collapse, which frustrated some critics who pegged them as half-hearted demos. If they went back and listened to "No Child of Mine" or "It's You" again, they would realize that those are the songs in their entireties and no more is needed. At the end of those tracks, it's obvious that there is so much heart in them that Harvey is emotionally drained, as we all are, by the end of their running time.

This results in the album's downfall in the gluttonous mass marketed world of pop music. It is just too good and demanding of the listener to appeal to the scores of morons that value-molded pop-star bimbos over any artist brave and brilliant enough to release an album like Uh Huh Her. It's their loss.

P.J. Harvey

Uh Huh Her

Island Records

The verdict: The best breakup album of the last five -- hell, maybe 10 -- years.
 
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