Description
PJ Harvey – Is This Desire? – Demos – 180 Gram Vinyl Record
Is This Desire? – Demos returns to the writing behind PJ Harvey’s fourth studio album through twelve recordings that follow the complete album sequence. Issued in 2021, the collection includes early versions of Angelene, The Wind and A Perfect Day Elise, alongside the rest of the songs originally released on Is This Desire? in 1998. The appeal is the chance to hear the material in another form while keeping the relationships among the songs intact. Rather than selecting only the singles or adding unrelated outtakes, the demo release follows the whole record from its opening character study to the closing title song. This Island Records edition presents the program on 180 gram black vinyl.
The 1998 album occupied a distinctive place in Harvey’s catalog, bringing electronic textures and a more enclosed atmosphere into music already known for its strong sense of character. Its production involved Harvey, Flood and Head, and its songs often place named figures at the center of the writing. The demos offer a useful counterpart to that finished presentation. Listeners can follow how a vocal phrase, a melodic line or a change in accompaniment defines a song before considering the final studio arrangement. The interest is in the creative decisions embodied in these performances, and in the way the same material can retain its identity when heard through a different recording.
Angelene begins the first side, with The Sky Lit Up and The Wind following before My Beautiful Leah, A Perfect Day Elise and Catherine. Several of those titles introduce individual characters, helping establish the album’s particular world without requiring a continuous story from track to track. A Perfect Day Elise was the original album’s lead single, but in this sequence it remains part of a larger group of songs. That setting is one of the collection’s strengths. It allows a familiar selection to be heard beside material with a different scale or mood, while the demo performances keep attention close to Harvey’s writing and delivery. The first side contains six songs and preserves their original order.
Electric Light opens the second side, followed by The Garden, Joy, The River and No Girl So Sweet. Is This Desire? then closes the program. The arrangement of those six selections gives the latter half of the record the same shape as the studio album, so comparisons can be made song by song or across an entire side. The closing title track brings the collection back to the question at the center of the album’s name. Throughout, the release gives the listener a separate set of performances from the same body of writing. It is especially relevant to those interested in how Harvey’s songs establish a voice, a character or a mood before their final presentation.
Jason Mitchell mastered the audio at Loud Mastering with guidance from Harvey’s longtime collaborator John Parish. The release also has its own artwork, using previously unseen photographs by Maria Mochnacz, and includes a printed inner sleeve. Those details make the demo album a distinct edition within Harvey’s reissue program. The single 180 gram black LP contains all twelve selections, divided evenly between the two sides. For collectors of Harvey’s work, it offers a complete companion to Is This Desire? rather than a short selection of extras. For listeners drawn to the craft of songwriting and recording, the full sequence provides an opportunity to revisit a specific creative period through the early forms of its songs.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
A1. Angelene (Demo)
A2. The Sky Lit Up (Demo)
A3. The Wind (Demo)
A4. My Beautiful Leah (Demo)
A5. A Perfect Day Elise (Demo)
A6. Catherine (Demo)
B1. Electric Light (Demo)
B2. The Garden (Demo)
B3. Joy (Demo)
B4. The River (Demo)
B5. No Girl So Sweet (Demo)
B6. Is This Desire? (Demo)
