Reviews
Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's.", "...TO BRING YOU MY LOVE could be described as menstrual, in the primeval, ritualistic, sense of the word, the Earth Mother unleashing powers which man would rather lock up for fear of the dark....In another time, they'd call it the blues. But really, it's blacker than that...", Ranked #3 on Spin's List of the `20 Best Albums of '95.', 10 - Classic - "...She knows that rock'n'roll... stimulates desire, and if you're hungry enough, it can...break you apart....Harvey uses it...to free the man in her, and the madwoman, the goddess and the ghost. While most of her peers graze pop culture's surfaces for inspiration, Harvey plunges under. She's bent on touching rock's magical core...", Included in Q's 50 Best Albums of 1995 - "...it's sensual, intoxicating stuff, compelling--and expertly--performed...", Ranked #1 in the 1996 Critics' Poll., 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Harvey envisions a teeming underworld where she is victim, aggressor and accomplice, song by song....all these are put in the service of a primal vision on TO BRING YOU MY LOVE: Harvey's bitter struggles with her demons and her wicked, wanton sympathy for the devil...", Ranked #8 in NME's `Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995 - "...Obsession, voodoo rituals, religious visions, murder, revenge and a kind of spiritual search for love...set to a creaking, flinty modern-day blues...", "...Her lyrics convey desire and love, while her barbed-wire voice betrays uncertainty about giving over that much of herself....TO BRING YOU MY LOVE is the most welcome of rarities: a move toward maturity without any loss of Harvey's visceral power..." - Rating: A, Ranked #1 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll., Ranked #3 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s.", "...No matter how good her earlier records convinced you Polly Harvey was, she's lots better...an innovative leap forward. She's written primal blues and country-based songs about love, death and longing and sung them passionately with no irony or distance...", Ranked #5 on Ew's Top 10 Albums of 1995., Included on Jon Pareles' and Neil Strauss' list of the Top 10 Albums of `95 - "In Polly Jean Harvey's songs, love becomes immolation and salvation, holy quest and desperate obsession...", Ranked #40 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "An unprecedented slice of coal-black, freakily obsessional avant-roots-rock.", Ranked #9 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's `Albums Of The Year' - "...Rapacious, bluesy, stylistically drawing on Zeppelin and Cave..."
