To Bring You My Love

PJ Harvey took a break from the spotlight in 1994. After releasing two studio albums (Dry and Rid of Me) and a compilation (4-Track Demos) in less than two years, she kept a low profile for most of the year. Harvey made only one public appearance in 1994, performing a cover version of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" with Icelandic singer Björk at the annual BRIT Awards. Using the royalties that she had received from her first two studio albums, she bought a house in rural England close to her parents' home in Yeovil. She described her new home as "completely in the countryside. I have no neighbours. When I look out the window, all I see are fields." Living in near isolation, she began writing the songs that would appear on To Bring You My Love. ==Recording==

To Bring You My Love was Harvey's first album of new material since disbanding the original PJ Harvey trio in 1993. For this recording she recruited producer Flood, her old Automatic Dlamini bandmate John Parish and a new line-up of session musicians including multi-instrumentalists Joe Gore, Eric Drew Feldman, Mick Harvey and drummer Jean-Marc Butty. She herself played guitar, keyboards, vibraphone and bells on the record, as well as co-producing it with Flood and John Parish. ==Music and lyrics==

The subject matter and tone of the songs on To Bring You My Love differ somewhat from what Harvey had presented on her earlier albums. The songs on Rid of Me (1993), for example, are more aggressive in their depictions of relationships. They focus more on revenge ("Rid of Me", "Rub 'til It Bleeds"), or act as an attack on traditional masculinity ("Man-Size", "50ft Queenie", "Me-Jane"). Although these songs do directly consider longing and loss, many of the songs on To Bring You My Love focus particularly on these topics, specifically considering the loss of, or longing for, a departed lover. The title track presents a narrator who not only desires love but is willing to sacrifice everything to get it. "I've lain with the devil," Harvey sings, "Cursed God above/Forsaken Heaven/To bring you my love." Many of the songs on To Bring You My Love employ biblical imagery such as Heaven, God, and Jesus Christ. Harvey, however, is not a religious person. She was not baptized and did not attend church as a child. She spoke of her use of religious imagery by saying "I look towards religion as possibly one means to finding an answer, to making sense why we're here. That's what drives the creative force, to make sense of one's life. A very natural place to look is in that divine area, because it's so strong and has been here long before us." The deep, rumbling organ tones provide many of the lower notes on the album, replacing traditional basslines. ==Critical reception==

As her second full-length release on a major label, To Bring You My Love received a heavy promotional push from Island Records. Extensive MTV rotation and college radio airplay for the first single "Down by the Water" — with its eccentric, eye-catching Maria Mochnacz-directed music video of Harvey drowning in an emerald pond while wearing an extravagant wig, heavy make-up and a slinky red satin evening gown — gave Harvey her biggest radio hit to date, reaching number two on Billboards Modern Rock chart. The album itself debuted at number 40 on the Billboard 200 and number 12 in the UK, and went on to sell roughly one million copies. The moderate commercial breakthrough of To Bring You My Love had nothing to do with any scaling-down of her trademark lyrical intensity: the infanticide fable "Down by the Water" — whose whispered coda of "Little fish big fish swimming in the water/Come back here, man, gimme my daughter" references the old Lead Belly blues standard "Salty Dog" — ostensibly deals with a mother drowning her child. The critical response was overwhelmingly positive. Rolling Stone praised the record as "astonishing" in its four-star review. Los Angeles Times noted the "rich imagery" of the lyrics, writing that "in the most gripping moments, [...] [Harvey] speaks with the captivating clarity and force of someone reaching for a final, life-saving anchor." ==Accolades==

The album received universal acclaim. It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll by a wide margin, and was also voted the year's number-one album by publications such as Rolling Stone, The New York Times, People, USA Today, Hot Press and, in "the biggest landslide victory in 15 years", the Los Angeles Times. It featured in Top Ten lists for magazines like Spin, NME, Melody Maker, Mojo and The Wire, though a contrarian Time list dubbed it the "Worst Album of 1995." The album received two Grammy Award nominations as Best Alternative Music Performance and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the single "Down by the Water", and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Spin later ranked it at number three in a list of the best albums of the 1990s. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 435 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Slant Magazine, in 2011, rated To Bring You My Love as the 20th best album of the 1990s. As of December 2005, (according to AskBillboard) To Bring You My Love has sold 371,000 copies in the US. ==Track listing==

Musicians • PJ Harvey – vocals, organ, guitar (1, 4, 5, 8), piano (5, 6), vibraphone (1), marimba (9), bells (5), chimes (5), percussion (9) • John Parish – guitar (1, 2, 6, 9, 10), organ (6), drums (4–8, 10), percussion (1–4, 6, 7, 9, 10) • Joe Gore – guitar (2–4, 6, 7), e-bow (1) • Mick Harvey – bass (6), organ (9) • Jean-Marc Butty – drums (2), percussion (9) • Joe Dilworth – drums (3) • Pete Thomas – string arrangements • Sonia Slany – violin (4, 7, 9) • Jocelyn Pook – viola (4, 7, 9) • Jules Singleton – viola (4, 7, 9) • Sian Bell – cello (4, 7, 9) Production • Flood – producer, engineer, mixing • PJ Harvey – producer, engineer (1, 4, 5, 7) • John Parish – producer • Howie Weinberg – mastering Design • Martin Callomon – artwork, art direction • Valerie Phillips – photography • Kate Garner – photography ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Singles ==Certifications and sales==