Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea -

Released: 31 October 2000 (23 October in the U.K.)
ID: 314 548-144-2

Track List:
01. Big Exit
02. Good Fortune
03. A Place Called Home
04. One Line
05. Beautiful Feeling
06. The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore
07. This Mess We're In
08. You Said Something
09. Kamikaze
10. This Is Love
11. Horses In My Dreams
12. We Float
13. This Wicked Tongue*

Liner Notes:
All songs written by P J Harvey
Produced by P J Harvey, Rob Ellis & Mick Harvey
Recorded by Head at Great Linford Manor - March/April 2000
Additional recording by P J Harvey on 4-Track in New York and Dorset
Mixed by Victor Van Vugt at The Fallout Shelter May 2000
Except 'We Float' mixed by Head
Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk Studios, New York
Photography by Maria Mochnacz
Design by Rob Crane & Maria Mochnacz
All titles published by Hothead Music Ltd./EMI Music Publishing Ltd.
All lyrics are reproduced by kind permission of the publisher
www/island.co.uk / www.pjharvey.net

Thanks to: Head, Victor Van Vugt, Thom Yorke, Ray & Eva Harvey, Sam Miller and all at Great Linford Manor, Matt Gregory, Barry Nicol, Gleen At 'Small World Studios', Yeovil, John Parish, Maria Mochnacz, Sharon Blankson, Melanie King, Sally-Anne McKeown, Sheila Roche & Paul McGuinnes at Principle Management, Eric Drew Feldman, Martin Donovan, Jason Wolford, Howie Weinberg, Hal Hartley (for lending me his 4-track), Jean-Marc Butty (for helping me sequence the album), and Flood (for his support and advice)

Very special thanks to Mick & Rob

Note the punctuation error just before the 'Thank Yous': the address for Island Records website is www/island.co.uk instead of www.island.co.uk

Other Information:
*"This Wicked Tongue was only available on early editions of the UK album.

The album "is so named not so much because of the locations in which it was written (New York and Dorset), but because she has always liked the Jungian notion of 'the sea being the subconscious and the land the conscious'." -The Guardian, 10/2000

This album won the UK's Mercury Music Prize, making PJ Harvey the first female artist to win. However, the album lost in the new American equivilent (the Shortlist Prize) to Sigur Ros.
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Song trivia:

One Line-
"Songs can actually stern from my poems. One of them went on the new album actually, "One Line."' - Alt. Press (12/2000)

One Line (Poem)
I long for you,
You, whom I destroyed,
I yearn for you
My heart pressed up against my head.
Shallow-breathing.
The feeling,
Still sends me racing.

I draw a line.
A thread across the rolling country
To the crushed city.
Your lightened window to mine.
Right here, right now, this time of day,
As light and stars come into play,
Your head.
In mine.
Your heart.
One line.

Beautiful Feeling-
According to a German interview, this song was inspired by a two month camping vacation near San Francisco. Apparently Polly and a friend remained dirty for the duration, enjoyed it, and this song resulted.

The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore-
The song draws inspiration (and some direct lines) from Elfriede Jelinek's The Piano Teacher, including the song's title, phrases such as "the language of violence" and talk of "money or love." (Thanks Gomy Osh!)

This Mess We're In-
"They're small moments in time made big through song. They're like an entire history, an entire emotion, an entire situation all summed up in three minutes. Like a good short story, they achieve that for me." -Polly (also referring to "You Said Something")

This song was written specifically for Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) to sing, and Polly was glad he came through for it.

Booklet Photos

Singles Released:
Good Fortune CD1
Good Fortune CD2
A Place Called Home CDS
This is Love/You Said Something CDS