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White Chalk – Demos

Record Details

Artist
PJ Harvey
Release
2021

June 25th 2021 sees the reissue of PJ Harvey’s seventh album White Chalk, which will be released on vinyl, alongside an album of previously unreleased demos which will be available on CD, vinyl and digital.

Produced by Flood and John Parish and featuring collaborators Jim White and Eric Drew Feldman, White Chalk charted at number 11 in the UK and received extensive critical acclaim upon its release in September 2007, including 5 stars from the Observer Music Monthly and praise from Mojo, Uncut, Rolling Stone, Village Voice and more.

The reissue was cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering under the guidance of John Parish. 

“An album of lonely beauty and piercing sorrow…PJ Harvey at the peak of her considerable powers” – 8/10, Uncut

“Singular…nothing Harvey has done in the past…can prepare you” – 5 stars, Observer Music Monthly

“A brave and brilliant refocusing of her energies, virtually a rebirth” – 8/10, Mojo

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Record Links

Record Tracklist

  1. The Devil
    The Devil

    As soon as I am left alone
    the devil wanders into my soul
    and I pretend to myself –
    I pretend to myself

    I go out to the old mile-stone
    insanely expecting you to come there
    knowing that I wait for you there –
    that I wait for you there

    Come here at once!
    Come on a night with no moon
    because all of my being is now pining –
    all of my being is now pining

    What formerly cheered me now seems insignificant

  2. Dear Darkness
    Dear Darkness

    Won’t you cover me again? Dear Darkness, I’ve been your friend for many years…
    Won’t you do this for me dearest Darkness? Cover me from the sound of the words tightening around my throat and around the throat of the one I love…the tightening, tightening, tightening.

    Dear Darkness – now it’s your turn to look after us, because we kept you clothed and we kept you in business when everyone else was having good luck. So now it’s your time to pay – to pay me and the one I love with the worldly goods you stashed away –
    with all the things you took from us.

  3. Grow, Grow, Grow
    Grow, Grow, Grow

    I sowed a seed
    underneath the oak tree
    I trod it in
    with my boots I trampled it down

    grow, grow, grow, grow

    I sowed a rose
    underneath the oak grove
    with my boots on the ground
    into the earth I trampled it down

    grow, grow

    teach me mummy
    how to grow
    how to catch someone’s fancy
    underneath the twisted oak grove

  4. When Under Ether
    When Under Ether

    The ceiling is moving
    moving in time
    like a conveyor belt
    above my eyes

    When under ether
    the mind comes alive
    conscious of nothing
    but the will to survive

    I lay on the bed
    waist down undressed
    look up at the ceiling
    feeling happiness

    Human kindness

    The woman beside me
    is holding my hand
    I point at the ceiling
    she smiles so kind

    Something’s inside me
    unborn and unblessed
    disappears in the ether
    this world to the next

    Human kindness

  5. White Chalk
    White Chalk

    White chalk hills are all I’ve known
    White chalk hills will rot my bones
    White chalk sticking to my shoes
    White chalk playing as a child with you

    White chalk south against time
    White chalk cutting down the sea at Lyme
    I walk the valleys by the Cerne
    on a path cut fifteen hundred years ago

    and I know these chalk hills will rot my bones

    Dorset’s cliffs meet at the sea
    where I walked, our unborn child in me
    White chalk, gorse-scattered land
    scratch my palms – there’s blood on my hands

  6. Broken Harp
    Broken Harp

    Please don’t reproach me
    for how empty
    my life has become

    I don’t know what really happened
    I watched your disappointment
    at being misunderstood

    I forgive you

    Something metal
    is tearing my stomach out
    if you think ill of me

    Can you forgive me too?

    I tried to learn your language
    but fell asleep half undressed
    unrecognisable to myself

  7. Silence
    Silence

    All those places where I recall
    the memories that grip me and pin me down,
    I go to these places pretending to think –
    I can think of nothing, but anticipate

    that you’ll find me there –
    that by some miracle you’d be aware.

    I’d risen this morning determined to break
    the spell of my longing, and not to think.
    I freed myself from my family, I freed myself from work,
    I freed myself, and remained alone…

    and in my thinking steal you away –
    though you never wanted me anyway.

    Silence. Silence. Silence.

  8. To Talk to You
    To Talk to You

    Oh grandmother, how I miss you
    under the earth – I wish I was with you

    to talk to you

    I found somebody I tried to give myself to –
    many times I wanted to talk to you

    If I lay on the earth could you hear?

    Oh grandmother, I’m so lonely
    all my life

    If I lay on the earth could you hear?

  9. The Piano
    The Piano

    Hit her with a hammer
    teeth smashed in
    red tongues twitching
    look inside a skeleton

    My fingers sting
    where I feel your fingers have been
    ghostly fingers
    moving my limbs

    Oh god I miss you!

    Daddy’s in the corner
    rattling his keys
    mummy’s in the doorway
    trying to leave

    Nobody’s listening

  10. Before Departure
    Before Departure

    Farewell my friends
    Farewell my dear ones
    If I was rude
    forgive my weakness

    Goodbye my friends
    Goodbye to evening parties
    Remember me
    in the spring

    Work for your bread
    Soon we must leave
    Remember your families
    and work for your children

    I don’t need much
    and the older I become
    I realise
    my friendships

    will carry me over
    any cause of strangeness
    and any cause of distance
    The friends that last

    will dance one more time
    with me
    I don’t need much
    but this I need

  11. The Mountain
    The Mountain

    Above the mountain
    an eagle is flying

    High above the mountain
    an eagle is calling down
    to the soldier who falters
    a soldier on the ground

    By the mountain I feel nothing
    for in my own heart every tree is broken –

    the first tree will not blossom
    the second will not grow
    the third has almost fallen
    since you betrayed me so