Is This Desire? (studio album)
by PJ Harvey

This was a slow burner for me. One of the more moody brooding albums from her. Sits about midway within her catalog. Still one of the best female vocalists ever.

From Brad1770 03/23/2021 04:09 | #267645

Up until this release Polly Jean had been on a hot streak so it was kinda inevitable an album wasn’t going to make it and this for mine is the one. Too experimental in parts with a bunch of genuine fillers off set with a couple of humdingers in “A Perfect Day Elise” and title track closer “Is This Desire? “

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From Bach 10/25/2013 23:12 | #89218

Her most underrated album. Dark and difficult, but very good.
Best tracks: A Perfect Day Elise, The Wind, The River, The Garden.

I've been listening to Polly's albums for the last couple of weeks. Most of the albums go into similar "ballpark" to me, I like all of them, but apart from certain songs, I'm not exactly head over heels for them. Most of them aren't musically that interesting or diverse. And I feel a lot of what she's doing on some of the albums, was done better by some other artists. I don't want to seem too critical though, I enjoyed her albums, and as I said, all of them are at least good.

With Is This Desire? though, I feel that she keeps similar consistency throughout the album, but also manages to suprise me musically. Some of this stuff is borderline trip-hop! Then there's that trumpet on The River, and I also dig the subdued synths on some of the tracks, like Angelene or Catherine.

I honestly don't understand why this album doesn't get nearly the same amount of love as some of her efforts. IMO, it's her best.

PJ has a lot of great music, most of it off-beat (Stories From The City is probably her most accessible album), but nothing of hers prepared me for the haunting quality of this record. Probably the eeriest record I’ve heard since Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. Not every song is great, but the ones that are—especially “A Perfect Day Elise,” “The River,” “Angelene,” and “No Girl So Sweet”—make this a Top 40 album for me.

From lightmyway 05/18/2012 17:00 | #42643

Electronic touches and somewhat impersonal writing. It's not as good as her first three.

I get the same feeling from hearing this, that I get from listening to "Vespertine" from Björk, "Hell Hat No Fury" with Clipse and "Adore" from Smashing Pumpkins. It's these dark inaccessible records, which at first, sound like fragile failures, but which in the end, showes to have some kind of beautiful sense to the madness.

From cartoken 01/20/2011 00:39 | #17654

a very different album from PJ Harvey, with a remarkable electronic touch. all Bjork + Radiohead's fans can only love this album.

From badfaith 09/27/2009 09:01 | #6341

If you're coming from a more mainstream, pop sensibility, P.J Harey is a very challenging artist, and this is a challenging album.
I bought it when it came out on the strength of a Perfect Day Elise, but was horrified at how bad i thought the rest of the album was, so I put it in a box with other CDs, and there it stayed for a few years until i came across it again while going through the box for stuff to sell. I put it on, and was blown away... it's dark, a little terrifying, and acouple of tracks are still awful, but it's beautiful too.