Big Thief are some of the only artists right now whose mission runs entirely counter to the world we live in. Their music leaves behind cities, machines, and rigid rhythms, where most of even our best music these days seems intent on replacing the sounds of human beings with a false mechanical magnificence.
There’s feckless Royals on the prowl again in the international scene, and for those of us terrified of the press, here comes Dry Cleaning to redeem us with a tram-rhythmed, chugging, pulsing, effortless groove-that-just-don’t-won’t-stop. Above all there’s Florence Shaw, whose cool, low Sprechstimme makes it all work.
![PJ Harvey - "Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea" [Reissue] | Album Review](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56066cf9e4b0ffbc0fe62db1/1615349347985-5UO9KHBEPF35WZY43NAR/320x0w.jpg)
When Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea arrived in 2000, it did so as the nexus of any number of narratives that had been building to that point. For all of the believers, it was Harvey’s first really “mature” album, the apex of her ability as a songwriter, wherein all the shadow and sex of her music finally erupted into defiant Y2K apocalypticism.
