Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Studio album by PJ Harvey
Released	October 23, 2000
Recorded	March 2000–April 2000
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	47:25
Label	Island
Producer	Rob Ellis, Mick Harvey, PJ Harvey
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link The A.V. Club (Favourable) 3/29/02 NME (Favourable) link Pitchfork (5.5/10) link Robert Christgau (A+) link Rolling Stone 10/26/00
PJ Harvey chronology
Is This Desire? (1998) Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) Uh Huh Her (2004)

Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea is an album by English singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, released on October 23, 2000. It became the second major commercial success of PJ Harvey’s career, following her successful 1995 breakthrough To Bring You My Love. The album sold slightly over one million copies worldwide, and went gold in America, helped there by generous college radio airplay. Although it peaked at #42 in the U.S. and a modest #23 in the UK, it became a sleeper hit that quietly hung around the middle reaches of the album charts for a full year after its release. Reviews too were exceptionally strong, with Rolling Stone praising it as “the best album of her career” and NME hailing it "a magnificent, life-affirming opus". Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea won the 2001 Mercury Prize, and also brought Harvey BRIT Award nominations as Best British Female Artist for two years running, as well as two Grammy nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Female Rock Performance for the single "This Is Love". It is in the top 10 (number eight) on Rolling Stone's list of The 50 Essential "Women In Rock" Albums. [1] In 2006, the album was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time. [2] The album featured a duet with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke on the track "This Mess We're In", as well as backing vocals and keyboards from Yorke on the songs "One Line" and "Beautiful Feeling".

Album information

Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea was recorded at the Great Linford Manor in Milton Keynes in March-April 2000. The record was co-produced by Head, Rob Ellis and Harvey, and mixed by Victor Van Vugt at the Fallout Shelter. Harvey told Q magazine in 2001, "I wanted everything to sound as beautiful as possible. Having experimented with some dreadful sounds on Is This Desire? and To Bring You My Love - where I was really looking for dark, unsettling, nauseous-making sounds - Stories From The City... was the reaction. I thought, No, I want absolute beauty. I want this album to sing and fly and be full of reverb and lush layers of melody. I want it to be my beautiful, sumptuous, lovely piece of work." She did, however, joke that it was only "pop according to PJ Harvey, which is probably as un-pop as you can get according to most people's standards." As of 2005, (according to AskBillboard) "Stories..." has sold 270,000 copies in the US.

Track listing

All tracks written by PJ Harvey.

1. "Big Exit"
2. "Good Fortune"
3. "A Place Called Home"
4. "One Line"
5. "Beautiful Feeling"
6. "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore"
7. "This Mess We're In"
8. "You Said Something"
9. "Kamikaze"
10. "This Is Love"
11. "Horses in My Dreams"
12. "We Float"
13. "This Wicked Tongue" (UK & Japan bonus track)

Singles and promo videos

1. "Good Fortune"
2. "A Place Called Home"
3. "This Is Love/You Said Something" (two versions)
4. "You Said Something"

Samples

Personnel

• PJ Harvey: vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, maracas, producer, engineer
• Rob Ellis: drums, piano, synthesizer, keyboards, harpsichord, tambourine, electric piano, background vocals, producer
• Mick Harvey: organ, bass, drums, percussion, harmonium, keyboards, background vocals, producer
• Thom Yorke: vocals, keyboards
• Head: engineer, mixing
• Victor Van Vugt: mixing
• Howie Weinberg: mastering
• Rob Crane: design
• Maria Mochnacz: design, photography