To Bring You My Love - Demos (Demo)

Approfondimenti

As all of her demos show, PJ Harvey has a definite vision for each of her albums by the time she commits her songs to tape. With 1995's To Bring You My Love, she expanded her sound dramatically, fleshing out the bones of her music with lush instrumentation such as keyboards and strings. On To Bring You My Love: The Demos, how she gets the ideas across for this lavish-sounding album with relatively limited resources makes for fascinating listening. Obviously, these versions are much rawer than the final product Harvey crafted in the studio with Flood and John Parish. The demo of "Down by the Water," the album's quintessential track, is a stylized miniature of the finished version, thanks to the stiff, tinny beats and canned organ sounds of the secondhand Yamaha keyboard Harvey used to write the album. Nevertheless, this song and the rest of To Bring You My Love: The Demos sizzles with the potential she fulfilled in the studio with the rest of her creative team. They also reveal different connections to the rest of her body of work: This incarnation of "C'mon Billy" sounds like it could have appeared on Dry, and once again the Yamaha's synth strings and beats lend a very different color to the song compared to the live string section and percussion of the studio version. Several other acoustic-based songs are highlights, such as the fiery takes on "Send His Love to Me" and "The Dancer," which leans into the song's flamenco influences and feels notably looser than the rendition on To Bring You My Love. Elsewhere, the brash, lo-fi version of "Meet Ze Monsta" recalls 4-Track Demos, while the serrated guitar din of the "Long Snake Moan" demo suggests that it could have fit in on Rid of Me. As always, Harvey's voice sounds fantastic, particularly on "Teclo," where her lower register and startling vibrato reflect the mix of genuine, deeply felt emotion and theatrical presentation that extends to all of To Bring You My Love. Since so much of the album's power resides in its stunning production, this set might be slightly less revelatory than some of Harvey's other demo albums. Nevertheless, die-hard fans will savor the glimpse into her creative process that To Bring You My Love: The Demos provides.
© Heather Phares /TiVo