Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

PJ Harvey

The Piano

Label: Island Release Date: 26/11/2007

TinPanAl by Alex Denney November 27th, 2007

As brave and bewitching a record P J Harvey’s White Chalk is, a singles album it most definitely isn’t. 'The Piano' is a second, inwardly-fluttering release of corseted demons and sublimated desire, opening with the fantastically gory lines: "hit her with a hammer, teeth smashed in / red tongue’s twitching, look inside her skeleton".

And while 'The Devil' or even 'Grow Grow Grow' might have made for something vaguely more akin to conventional-sounding singles, this has a peculiar power all of its own; repressed and not a little unnerving.

'The Piano' could be a whispered voice you thought you heard on the wind, such is the song’s crepuscular slightness. It’s the sound of slippered feet across candlelit halls, the proverbial madwoman in the attic, and it’s a role Harvey inhabits with ghostly conviction.

  • 8
    Alex Denney's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing



Left-arrow

Simon Breed

Finish My Book

Mobback
29727
29677

Grouper

Cover The Windows and The Walls

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025

  • 106149
  • news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145

    news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143
  • news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141

    news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139
  • Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138

    Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137
  • Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
MORE


GREATEST HITS

    Live Review


    Kate Bush, Hammersmith Apollo 26/8/14: "There's...

  • 97473
  • Interview


    Interview: Bjork talks piracy, punk, Lady Gaga ...

  • 79700

    news


    Q1 Digest: Most Read and Editor's Recommended R...

  • 94692
  • Takeover


    British Sea Power's Top 5 Castles in the UK. Ever.

  • 95373

    feature


    Sean's Top Records of The First 5 Years of DiS

  • 9692
  • feature


    Drinking the Knights Away: DiS meets James Merc...

  • 93723

    review


    No Age - Weirdo Rippers

  • 24750
  • feature


    Sick Of Conor Oberst

  • 3035
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2026 DROWNED IN SOUND