4-Track Demos
by PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey bestography
4-Track Demos is ranked 11th 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 281 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 5,856.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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Listen to 4-Track Demos on YouTube
4-Track Demos track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 76 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
4-Track Demos rankings
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4-Track Demos 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 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 71 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 12/07/2025 22:42 |  Kingturtle | 7,530 | 73/100 |
| ! | 12/15/2024 14:07 | TonySayers61 | 23,641 | 64/100 |
| ! | 05/25/2024 03:34 |  Jameth | 3,452 | 68/100 |
| ! | 04/02/2023 11:35 |  MW19704U | 6,990 | 59/100 |
| ! | 03/16/2023 01:05 |  EyeKanFly | 8,358 | 65/100 |
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 15% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.2/100, a mean average of 74.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.6.
4-Track Demos favourites
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4-Track Demos comments
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my favorite pj no doubt
Yes, this little loved PJ Harvey album is still my unquestionable favorite of hers. And yes, "modern rock marvel" Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea is still my least favorite for its overt "modern rock" commercial production and half the songs feeling just mediocre songwriting from an artist of her caliber (despite admittedly 2-4 treasures on Stories!)
So why 4-Track demos? Precisely because it is just Polly, seemingly unfinished demos yet actually tightly focused. I always felt it was her (their) most pro-woman record, even more so than Dry (hard as that could seem to be), and 4-track abounds with so many truly wonderful reworkings of Captain Beefheart and other blues treasures.
Steve Albini ruined most of the songs of Rid Of Me with his ill-matched production of that record. So, the group's (or Harvey's) release of 4-Track Demos, arriving just five and a half months after Rid of Me, gives Polly the final word on that period. 4-Track shows the songs' potential far greater and "sets the record straight", although straight is certainly the wrong word.
Should this record need to be summed up in just one word, comprehending mood, recording quantity, song structure, lyrical content, and spirit of artist at that particular time : RAW.
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