Everything's Gone Blue

White Chalk sounds so familiar - it could be no one but PJ Harvey but it is so different from anything else she has done. There must be a sort of idiolect that runs through all her songs that defines her regardless of what she sings. If you are not into 'bleak' then maybe don't get this one. It reminds me so much of my internal images for Victorian Schools - all threat and religion though there is nothing overtly religious about this album other than the tinkling upright piano and the white flouncy dresses. Modern words they are and it does not really matter what they say or even what they mean - that idiolect maintains the importance of the songs without them having to engage you with plot at all. But then isn't that the way with most supposedly intellectual songs. Listen to some of your favourite songs from 16-18 and you'll find that they say nowt and mean less.

The media player has just rolled over into a Wire Tapper CD sampler which has left echoes of White Chalk floating around in my head. It's all so very dreamlike. Something is stealing my ideas, however bad they are.