PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

PJ Harvey's 2000 album Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea is like a love letter to NYC. She was newly in love and these songs flow like the Hudson River. It features the singles "Good Fortune", "A Place Called Home" and "This Is Love". It also includes a duet with Radiohead's Thom Yorke on "This Mess We're In". 

Having made two of her most emotionally taxing albums in To Bring You My Love (1995) and Is This Desire? (1998), Harvey was adamant that her next album would be full of beauty and light. As she began to consider her next move, she spent a month in New York, acting in the Hal Hartley film The Book Of Life. The city struck her as the perfect place to write, and she returned for a longer spell in 1999. The stars aligned: New York “energized” her she said, fuelling momentum into the project.

Instead of repelling mainstream listeners with abrasiveness, Stories draws them in with fullness and vibrancy. The feverish voice and the lyrics’ erotic neediness on the rumbling guitar-rocker “This Is Love” are utterly Harvey. So is her choice of guest vocalist on three tracks: Thom Yorke, perhaps the only British male able to deliver her lyrics as shatteringly as she does herself.

Produced by PJ Harvey with Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey, the album won the Mercury Music Prize in 2001.

Heavyweight vinyl produced by Island Records in 2021 Lacquers cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering under the guidance of longtime PJ Harvey producer Head. Faithfully replicated artwork.