A Week With P.J. Harvey's "White Chalk": Day 3
7 November 2007
tell your friends...
Words by Tony Conte // Illustration by Jen Pagnini
White Chalk is not only supremely gorgeous in its production, but it showcases an artist at the top of her game: PJ Harvey is a songstress of the highest order. Although the album’s character(s) bemoan a desperate and demoralized existence, the songs themselves float above it all, like dried leaves riding a river bloated from ice-melt.
“Teach me mommy, how to grow/ how to catch someone’s fancy/ underneath the twisted oak grove”
“Grow Grow Grow” is representative of the album’s brilliant usage of studio trickery and Harvey’s own lyrical potency. Longtime collaborators Flood and John Parish are credited, in conjunction with Harvey, for production of the album. Give it a close listen, and you will notice the attention to detail…the album itself is concise and every song has been distilled and crystallized, singling out the most emotionally jarring essence of every instrument and vocal.
Hear the ominous portent of the drums, the pounding of the old upright (you can even hear the rattle of the hollow keys of the piano, the same one that had been long-since-relegated to the church rec room). Listen closely to the lyrics, feel the soil under your feet, the afternoon has left behind the loamy smell of autumn.
“I sowed a seed/ underneath the oak tree/ I trotted in/ with my boots I trample it down/ grow, grow, grow”
Whether the character truly sings of a rose which she claims to have planted there or not, the combination of all of the sonic elements leaves your tongue feeling thick in your mouth; leaves you believing you have witnessed an awful deed.
Beyond the echo effect, used sparingly, and the particularly uncommon sound of the zither and concertina, a few songs feature a slight background hissing. Most prominently it can be heard on “Grow Grow Grow”, although you won’t realize the unnerving effect that it has until it ends abruptly with the snap of a tape ending, or a record’s needle being lifted suddenly.
Harvey has perfected a voice here. The voice of a character corrupted by distrust, malaise, ennui. A woman who has done something reprehensible and knows it. Someone who once felt justified by the wrongs committed against her, but who will now beseech in “Broken Harp”: “Please forgive me.”
She begs for her forgiveness over and over again until the phrasing and unique rephrasing has distorted the meaning of the words entirely. Is this a character who begs for forgiveness because she sees it as her moral obligation, or because she is in police custody?
Tomorrow: De-composing.
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