PJ Harvey

Since 1991 · United Kingdom

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Rid of Me (1993)

Rid of Me is the sound of a trio pushed to breaking point in Steve Albini's recording room, with drums that crack like gunshots and guitars that jump from whisper to scrape. The title track starts as a murmur and ends as a scream, and "50ft Queenie" turns bravado into a stomping riff. Albini's dry, close recording makes every breath audible, so the record feels dangerous in the room with you. It endures because it makes rawness sound intentional.

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PJ Harvey

Rid of Me · 1993

PJ Harvey is Polly Jean Harvey, who grew up on a Dorset farm hearing her parents' blues, Bob Dylan and Captain Beefheart records, and learned saxophone and guitar before forming a trio in 1991. Her debut Dry (1992) and Rid of Me (1993), recorded with Steve Albini, set a raw, bluesy, sometimes frightening standard for guitar music in the early nineties, and she then refused to repeat herself. To Bring You My Love (1995) went to swampy organ and slide, White Chalk (2007) to a high, ghostly piano, and Let England Shake (2011) to autoharp and war songs.

She is the only artist to have won the Mercury Prize twice, for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) and Let England Shake. Her lyrics, her changing look and her live shows treat each record as a new character, and later artists name her as proof you can change completely and still be yourself.