Is This Desire?
by PJ Harvey
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PJ Harvey bestography
Is This Desire? is ranked 7th best out of 22 albums by PJ Harvey on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by PJ Harvey is Let England Shake which is ranked number 269 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 6,025.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Is This Desire? on YouTube
Is This Desire? track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Is This Desire? rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 1 hour ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  ERadio | Top 50 Music Albums of 1998 | 31/50 | 2 |
| 2026 |  cestuneblague | Top 100 Music Albums of 1998 | 50/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | jdizzle123456 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 61/100 | 8 |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | My Overall Chart: 2301-2400 | 7/100 | - |
| 2026 | Moondance | Top 100 Music Albums of 1998 | 37/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Greatest Music Albums: 1001-1100 | 68/100 | - |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 95 Music Albums of 1998 | 24/95 | 4 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Indie albums of the year 1998 by Radio X | 17/25 | - |
| 2026 |  covecove | Favorite Albums 500-401 | 7/100 | - |
| 2026 |  LebowskiRams | Top 15 Music Albums of 1998 | 6/15 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 240 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 896 | |||
Is This Desire? collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 134 members
Is This Desire? ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 288 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/04/2026 00:28 | xhitmanx | 1,604 | 75/100 |
| ! | 06/30/2026 21:32 |  imimesis | 2,117 | 81/100 |
| ! | 06/10/2026 17:34 | covecove | 6,700 | 74/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.1/100, a mean average of 78.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.4.
Is This Desire? favourites
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Is This Desire? forum mentions
pedro1976 05/27/2026 12:05 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) Romanelli 09/09/2024 14:13 in The Romanelli Music Diary: Sacred CowIs This Desire? comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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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. (Edited)
Brad1770 TOP 100 COMMENTER 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? “
The first disappointing PJ Harvey album. Is this desire?, unlike her first three amazing records, seems unfocused and slightly short on inspiration. It's not bad, I would say at least half of it, maybe a third if was being generous, is as good as any PJ albums, but there is, for the first time, on any of her albums, some filler. Along with, uh huh her, is this desire?, is a non-essential PJ Harvey album. (Edited)
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.
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