![]() ![]() ![]() Harvey, who is fifty-three, is still the only artist to win the U.K.’s prestigious Mercury Prize twice, first in 2001 and then a decade later. Harvey has a deep and instinctive understanding of folklore, how it can both enchant and instruct us, and “I Inside the Old Year Dying” feels both ancient and brand new, like the very best kind of fairy tale. “I Inside the Old Year Dying” is a companion piece, in a sense-its lyrics were lifted from the poems, modified, and set to music (the album was co-produced, with Harvey, by her longtime collaborators John Parish and Flood)-but the feeling it evokes of discovery, of vulnerability, of inching closer to something divine is the same. ![]() “Orlam” tells the fantastical story of a year in the life of Ira-Abel, a nine-year-old girl who seeks solace in flora, fauna, and otherworldly spirits as she struggles to discover who she is and what her life is for. Both the poems and the album lyrics require some footnotes for a lay reader to untangle, but Harvey’s sense of rhythm and scene are so exquisite that it hardly feels like work at all. It’s based loosely on “ Orlam,” Harvey’s second book of poetry, which was published in 2022 and written in the heavy, captivating vernacular of Dorset, the coastal county in southwest England where Harvey was brought up. Earlier this month, Harvey released “I Inside the Old Year Dying,” her tenth album, and her first since 2016. ![]() For me, her work has always conjured images of the natural world, a certain rawness and danger: a prehistoric volcano rupturing, or a big cat darting elegantly across a plain. Since 1992, when she released “Dry,” her début album, PJ Harvey has made complex music that channels a primal, earthly energy. ![]()
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