Rid of Me

1	Rid of Me 4:28
2	Missed 4:25
3	Legs 3:40
4	Rub 'til It Bleeds 5:03
5	Hook 3:56
6	Man-Size Sextet 2:16
7	Highway '61 Revisited 2:57
8	50ft Queenie 2:23
9	Yuri-G 3:28
10	Man-Size 3:16
11	Dry 3:23
12	Me-Jane 2:42
13	Snake 1:35
14	Ecstasy 4:27

Barnes & Noble

Abrasive, ascetic and utterly riveting, Polly Jean Harvey's second CD, Rid of Me, continues the commanding form of her 1992 debut, Dry. Produced by Steve Albini, Harvey's songs seethe with mounting tension before breaking into a cacophonous explosion of anger and dismay. Consider the garbled spew which Harvey reduces Dylan's "Highway 61" or the fury of "Rub 'Til It Bleeds." Harvey deftly channels the spirit of Patti Smith's Horses. Her music is sensual without playing into any of the standard female archetypes: "I'll make you lick my injuries," she sings. Hers is the voice of raw, unfettered fury. Eight of Rid of Me's tracks are recorded in even sparer form on 4-Track Demos. Then Harvey took an unexpected turn and became a blues singer from the most tortured reaches of the soul on To Bring You My Love. Martin Johnson

All Music Guide

Dry was shockingly frank in its subject and sound, as PJ Harvey delivered post-feminist manifestos with a punkish force. PJ Harvey's second album, Rid of Me, finds the trio, and Harvey in particular, pushing themselves to extremes. This is partially due to producer Steve Albini, who gives the album a bloodless, abrasive edge with his exacting production; each dynamic is pushed to the limit, leaving absolutely no subtleties in the music. Harvey's songs, in decided contrast to Albini's approach, are filled with gray areas and uncertainties, and are considerably more personal than those on Dry. Furthermore, they are lyrically and melodically superior to the songs on the debut, but their merits are obscured by Albini's black-and-white production, which is polarizing. It may be the aural embodiment of the tortured lyrics, and therefore a supremely effective piece of performance art, but it also makes Rid of Me a difficult record to meet halfway. But anyone willing to accept its sonic extremities will find Rid of Me to be a record of unusual power and purpose, one with few peers in its unsettling emotional honesty. Stephen Thomas Erlewine