Over the course of PJ Harvey's career, documenting her art has seemed almost as important to her as creating it. She most famously let her audience behind the curtain with 4-Track Demos, the album of sketches and outtakes that followed on the heels of her breakthrough Rid of Me, and continued the tradition with projects like 2019's A Dog Called Money, a film chronicling the research behind and the recording of The Hope Six Demolition Project. In 2020, Harvey reissued her body of work with accompanying albums of their demos, starting with Dry. Though these demos were originally released with a limited edition of the album back in 1992, they've only grown more fascinating with time. Stripped of the grungy heft of their studio versions, the beautiful, nimble bones of these songs are allowed to stand on their own. The more intimate rendition of "Dress," with its dreamy, half-whispered opening verse and touches of scraping violins and searing guitars, presents an even clearer picture of the song's dashed hopes. A brisk reading of "Sheela Na Gig" that puts the focus on Harvey's playful vocals is another highlight, as is "Happy and Bleeding," where the spellbinding dynamics she creates with just her vocals and guitar might actually surpass the version that appears on Dry. Her combinations of blues, folk, and indie are at their rawest on "Hair" and "Fountain," both of which imply the gale-force intensity of their finished renditions. While some of these songs needed the studio treatment to fulfill their potential, it's clear that Harvey knew exactly how she wanted them to sound when she committed these sketches to tape. While Dry: The Demos doesn't hold any huge revelations, its small differences and riveting performances are treasures for die-hard fans who have the same passion for archiving that Harvey does.
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