PJ Harvey – B-Sides, Demos & Rarities (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

PJ Harvey has announced a new box set collecting music from her back catalog. B-Sides, Demos, & Rarities is due out November 4 (via UMe/Island). The release will be available in 6xLP, 3xCD, and digital formats, and includes 59 songs spanning Harvey’s three-decade career. The box set features previously unreleased songs, alternate versions of pre-existing songs, and other material that has been previously unavailable in physical formats or on streaming services.

Ahead of the release, PJ Harvey has shared demos of three songs from the box set. “Dry” and “Missed” both first appeared on Harvey”s 1993 album Rid of Me, while “Somebody’s Down, Somebody’s Name” was originally included on the limited edition version of Harvey’s 1995 album To Bring You My Love as a B-side.

The box set was mastered by Jason Mitchell in collaboration with John Parish, who worked as a producer on PJ Harvey albums including To Bring You My Love, White Chalk, and Let England Shake, among others. It also includes rare archival photos, with art direction from Maria Mochnacz and Rob Crane.

PJ Harvey’s ninth studio album, The Hope Six Demolition Project, was released in 2016. Earlier this year, she released a collection of demos recorded during the making of her celebrated 2011 album Let England Shake, and has a new reissue of The Hope Six Demolition Project due out in March 2023. UMe and Island will also release new vinyl reissues of every album in the PJ Harvey catalog, as well as her two albums with John Parish.

Though the reissue campaign that presented PJ Harvey’s albums with their demos was extensive, it still didn’t gather everything in her archives. She fills in those gaps with B-Sides, Demos & Rarities, a comprehensive set of harder-to-find and previously unreleased material that covers three decades of music. Kicking off with a handful of previously unreleased demos, the collection celebrates what makes each track special within Harvey’s chronology. Short but fully realized versions of “Dry” and “Man-Size” reaffirm that by the time she hits the record button, she knows exactly what she’s doing; the guitar and voice sketches of “Missed” and “Highway 61 Revisited” are as formidable as the finished takes; and the demo of the B-side “Me Jane” (yes, that’s how thorough this set is) offers one of the Rid of Me era’s catchiest songs in an even rawer state. B-Sides, Demos & Rarities reinforces just how vital Harvey’s non-album tracks are to her creative trajectory. The uncanny carnival oompah of “Daddy,” a “Man-Size” B-side, feels like one of the earliest forays into the eeriness that gave an extra thrill to To Bring You My Love, White Chalk, and much of Harvey’s later work. She continues Is This Desire?’s experimentation on “The Bay,” which contrasts songwriting befitting a classic folk ballad with pulsing keyboards and jazzy rhythms, and continues to try to make sense of the world’s chaos on Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea-era material spanning the whispery Saturn return of “30” to “This Wicked Tongue,” an updated expression of biblical sin, desire, and torment that delivers one of the set’s most quintessentially PJ Harvey moments. Fittingly for such an anachronistic-sounding album, White Chalk’s B-sides reach back to Harvey’s earliest days: “Wait” and “Heaven” date back to 1989 and deliver sprightly, strummy folk-pop that’s almost unrecognizable as her work. The set’s previously unreleased music contains just as many revelations. One of its most notable previously missing puzzle pieces is the demo of Uh Huh Her’s title track. A shockingly pure expression of rage, jealousy, and sorrow, it may have been too raw and revealing even for a PJ Harvey album, but it’s a shame that it and the like-minded “Evol” didn’t make the cut. Conversely, “Why’d You Go to Cleveland,” a 1996 collaboration between Harvey and John Parish, and the 2012 demo “Homo Sappy Blues” are downright playful, proving the complete picture of her music includes something akin to fun. Highlights from the collection’s 2010s material include “An Acre of Land,” a lush ballad rooted in the British folk traditions that are just as essential to her music as punk or the blues, and the 2019 cover of Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand,” which pays homage to a kindred spirit while transforming the song into something more desolate and plaintive. A must-listen for anyone following Harvey’s archival series, B-Sides, Demos & Rarities serves as a fascinating parallel primer to her music and the multitudes within it.
– Heather Phares

Tracklist:

1-01. PJ Harvey – Dry (Demo) (03:39)
1-02. PJ Harvey – Man-Size (Demo) (03:26)
1-03. PJ Harvey – Missed (Demo) (04:05)
1-04. PJ Harvey – Highway ’61 Revisited (Demo) (03:14)
1-05. PJ Harvey – Me-Jane (Demo) (02:58)
1-06. PJ Harvey – Daddy (03:19)
1-07. PJ Harvey – Lying In The Sun (04:30)
1-08. PJ Harvey – Somebody’s Down, Somebody’s Name (03:42)
1-09. PJ Harvey – Darling Be There (03:48)
1-10. PJ Harvey – Maniac (04:04)
1-11. PJ Harvey – One Time Too Many (02:55)
1-12. PJ Harvey – Harder (02:07)
1-13. PJ Harvey – Naked Cousin (Demo) (04:01)
1-14. PJ Harvey – Losing Ground (03:18)
1-15. PJ Harvey – Who Will Love Me Now? (05:21)
1-16. PJ Harvey – Why D’Ya Go To Cleveland (03:14)
1-17. PJ Harvey – Instrumental #1 (01:11)
1-18. PJ Harvey – The Northwood (01:58)
1-19. PJ Harvey – The Bay (03:13)
1-20. PJ Harvey – Sweeter Than Anything (03:13)
1-21. PJ Harvey – Instrumental #3 (01:06)
1-22. PJ Harvey – The Faster I Breathe The Further I Go (4-Track Version) (04:03)
1-23. PJ Harvey – Nina In Ecstasy 2 (02:18)
1-24. PJ Harvey – Rebecca (03:13)
1-25. PJ Harvey – Instrumental #2 (01:49)
1-26. PJ Harvey – This Wicked Tongue (03:46)
1-27. PJ Harvey – Memphis (03:54)
1-28. PJ Harvey – 30 (04:17)
1-29. PJ Harvey – 66 Promises (03:49)
1-30. PJ Harvey – As Close As This (02:42)
1-31. PJ Harvey – My Own Private Revolution (03:58)
1-32. PJ Harvey – Kick It To The Ground (4-Track Demo) (03:18)
1-33. PJ Harvey – The Falling (03:54)
1-34. PJ Harvey – The Phone Song (04:13)
1-35. PJ Harvey – Bows & Arrows (03:47)
1-36. PJ Harvey – Angel (03:58)
1-37. PJ Harvey – Stone (03:43)
1-38. PJ Harvey – 97º (02:55)
1-39. PJ Harvey – Dance (03:02)
1-40. PJ Harvey – Cat On The Wall (Demo) (02:47)
1-41. PJ Harvey – You Come Through (Demo) (02:50)
1-42. PJ Harvey – Uh Huh Her (Demo) (03:02)
1-43. PJ Harvey – Evol (Demo) (03:58)
1-44. PJ Harvey – Wait (02:17)
1-45. PJ Harvey – Heaven (03:20)
1-46. PJ Harvey – Liverpool Tide (02:45)
1-47. PJ Harvey – The Big Guns Called Me Back Again (02:47)
1-48. PJ Harvey – The Nightingale (04:16)
1-49. PJ Harvey – Shaker Aamer (02:51)
1-50. PJ Harvey – Guilty (Demo) (04:50)
1-51. PJ Harvey – I’ll Be Waiting (Demo) (03:25)
1-52. PJ Harvey – Homo Sappy Blues (Demo) (02:22)
1-53. PJ Harvey – The Age Of The Dollar (Demo) (03:13)
1-54. PJ Harvey – The Camp (04:35)
1-55. PJ Harvey – An Acre Of Land (06:20)
1-56. PJ Harvey – The Crowded Cell (From “The Virtues” Television Series) (03:10)
1-57. PJ Harvey – The Sandman (Demo) (02:06)
1-58. PJ Harvey – The Moth (Demo) (03:29)
1-59. PJ Harvey – Red Right Hand (02:51)