Album Review: I Inside the Old Year Dying by PJ Harvey

For her first album since 2016's The Hope Six Demolition Project, PJ Harvey has turned her attention from rundown public housing in the United States to matters a little closer to her home. I Inside the Old Year Dying revolves around the life of Ira-Abel Rawles, an adolescent girl making her way into womanhood and trying to make sense of the world. The lyrics are peppered with words from the Dorset region of the UK where Harvey grew up.

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So look behind, look before, life knocking at death's door I've always been fascinated by the origins of the neofolk genre. The idea that industrial music, the musical style generally regarded as the most mechanical and least earthy of all, could birth an at-least partial "return" to the sense of closeness-to-the-soil and cultural inheritance which folk music is broadly supposed to possess, has always seemed to me to signal something important about human nature, even if exactly what conclusion to draw from it should be the subject for another day, or at least for someone smarter than me to expound upon. The opening paragraph shouldn't be misconstrued to assume that PJ Harvey's first record in seven years dives into neofolk.

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Of late, Polly Harvey has occupied creative spaces just outside the spotlight. Over-exposed in ill-judged 2019 documentary A Dog Called Money, she diverted her offstage attentions to soundtracks for TV (Bad Sisters, The Virtues) and theatre (All About Eve). Meanwhile, vernacular verse novel Orlam mapped out thorny Dorset territory far from the sax-squalling shows for 2017's The Hope Six Demolition Project, Harvey's last album/tour proper.

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Photo by Steve Gullick I Inside the Old Year Dying by PJ Harvey PJ Harvey's tenth album, I Inside the Old Year Dying, is death-haunted. Not in the sense of being fearful of mortality, but of stoically recognizing that life and death are two sides of the same coin. Or, as Harvey puts it on opening song "Prayer at the Gate," "life a-knocking at death's door… life and death all innertwined." The words are delivered over an eerie descending chord progression, a ghostly octave reverb shimmering at the edges.

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Tags: PJ Harvey, Reviews, Album Reviews.

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Over thirty years since her barnstorming debut ‘Dry’ shook up the music world; it’s a blessing to see PJ Harvey still making fiercely independent music on her terms. She is truly one of the UK’s most daring artists, with no two albums she’s produced sounding the same. ‘I Inside the Old Year Dying’ continues the trend, Harvey and creative partners John Parish and producer Flood unearthing yet more fresh ground.

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