Album Review | ‘White Chalk’ by PJ Harvey
Harvey sheds her guitar for the haunting piano sounds on this hypnotic chamber pop release.
Polly Jean Harvey became a creative force among the rising female alternative artists of the early 90s. Few would have guessed the next that after the punky grunge sound of 2004’s Uh Huh Her, she would hang for an old upright. A quick look for White Chalk foreshadows the atmosphere you’re about to enter, her Victorian dress and delicate curls harken to the fragile chamber pop she fully embraces.
In several ways, I view it as a sister work to 1998’s Is This Desire? Both focus heavily on storytelling and ambiance. Desire’s the challenging, unabashed younger sibling to Chalk’s mature, mysterious aura. The playful nature of her prior album’s themes takes on new depths as her childlike web of jangly instrumentation and soaring falsetto bring light to these tales of disillusionment.
Harvey delves more into how she shaped this wide-eyed sound and viewpoint in her Rolling Stone interview:
“I didn’t start to play until early 2005 when a friend was looking for a home for a piano, and I quite simply had never owned one before. [To learn to play] I’d pretend to be a piano player. No, I’m serious. I pretend quite a lot in my head anyway, so I’m sitting there…
