P.J. Harvey

Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (Island)

A few hundred words in a college newspaper could never do justice to the praise of Polly Jean Harvey, who, after growing up on a sheep farm in Britain, became one of the finest indie musicians of our generation. Nevertheless, this small blurb seems the perfect place to appropriately acknowledge her understated genius. Harvey modestly writes her songs for herself and the fans of great alternative music on both sides of the Atlantic, not for radio stations and big record labels, who could only taint her art through exploitation and commercialization. Quietly, Harvey composed two of the very best albums of the '90s (1995's perfectly cooked To Bring You My Love and 1993's brilliantly raw Rid of Me), and her latest release, Stories From the City, Stories from the Sea, promises to be among the best albums of the new decade.

Stories, which I rank as the best release of the year, draws a picture of P.J. that her fans have never seen. After suffering a nervous breakdown in 1992, Harvey coped through her art, expressing a bitter, beautiful blend of anger and resignation, but not without an ever-present glimmer of hopeful longing. This album suggests she may have temporarily found what she has been looking for: a little happiness and some genuine love. Her vocals seem more relaxed, her guitar a bit less austere and the tunes somewhat more welcoming. On "Big Exit," Harvey meditates on human suffering, but concludes with "I'm immortal when I'm with you." Radiohead's Thom Yorke accompanies her vocals on the flowing duet "This Mess We're In," a sweetly sexual exchange. Finally, Stories ends with "We Float," possibly the most elegant ballad she has ever written. With P.J. Harvey, you never know when her happiness will give in to dissatisfaction, but you do know this album will remind her-and us-of how love used to feel. A -Christopher R. Blazejewski

Marilyn Manson

Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)