2. PJ Harvey4-Track Demos

This was my introduction to PJ, and I think it’s a great one. It’s not her first release, but it feels like her first release. At the time when I was hearing it for the first time, I was living in a big army tent, in a field behind my friend’s house, I was probably 21-years-old, and I was listening to a lot of American folk music – Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Paul Simon. Everything was pretty straight-laced, you know? Everything was pristine. When I heard PJ Harvey for the first time I totally laughed her off, I thought that she was ridiculous – because of where I was coming from musically. But there was something about it that caused me to listen again, and I would say that it was the biggest shift in my musical taste. She caused me to open up my musical horizons more than any other artist.

The personality on this record…I don’t know if you could put any more personality onto a record. It’s like hanging out with your strangest friend in high school, in audio form.