White Chalk is PJ HARVEY's eighth studio album and first new material since 2004's critically acclaimed Uh Huh Her. PJ Harvey went into the studio late last year to record and produce with Flood and John Parish. The three had worked together previously on the GRAMMY nominated To Bring You My Love and on Is This Desire?. White Chalk also includes musical contributions from Harvey's long time associate Eric Drew Feldman, and Jim White from The Dirty Three.

The album highlights PJ Harvey's incredible ability to consistently create a unique, yet always impactful experience with each new album. Her talents as a songwriter, musician, and producer have never been as powerful, or profound, as on White Chalk. The songs are wonderfully mesmerizing, leaving a hypnotic effect on the listener.

2008-07-30 -- 1/5:: White Chalk Nightmare
Having been a PJ fan for 15 years - starting with Rid of Me, I'm dismayed at this white disaster of artistry. To say that PJ doesn't cater to the mainstream is understood. To even say that she may care or not care whether she has any fans may also be accurate. Who knows what she was thinking when she made this. Maybe artistically she "hit the wall" and was going for a new direction. Whatever SHE may have been thinking, I bet the producers and company honchos must have thought this was going to be a disaster. Can you imagine going to a concert and listening to cuts from this dirge? I've been to funerals and heard more upbeat, soul satisfying music! Well, 15 years of great music is quite a statement. Maybe it's time for retirement PJ! I want to remember you as you were, singing Meet Ze Monsta!!

2008-07-20 -- 5/5:: When I hear the delicate melodies
and her soft little girly voice, I say HUH? Ive never heard her before, but her previous cover art conveys a hardened, street wise woman

Her songs and mannerisms here rip those preconceptions to sheds.
"I freed myself from my family, ive freed myself from work-ive freed myself - ive freed myself-and am now Im alone..."
One of the best lines in the song. being from the piece
SILENCE, also one of the best songs on the album:
What gets me is the anguished, haunting verses that convey going out into empty darkness.....
which end the piece...

It awakens something hidden inside, a memory, that I cant quite bring to the surface as a child, something which I cannot explain


The song is worth the price of the album alone

2008-07-09 -- 4/5:: Moody, haunting, great...
If you like moody, haunting music with a bit of a gothic flair, then this should appeal. Her voice, piano work and arrangements all create a unified mood and deliver unique sounds and thoughts. I very much like all but two of the tracks, and those two are OK, just not as much to my liking. Enjoy...

2008-05-09 -- 5/5:: Less is more
This is the best album I've heard in years.

If you are buying it on vinyl the American release runs at 33 rpm while the UK release is a 45 rpm.

2008-04-21 -- 5/5:: Never mind the bollocks, here's PJ Harvey
For those who know PJ Harvey since her first gigs, this is obviously a return to form. Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea was atrocious, and Uh uh Her was non-descript. PJ Harvey knows how to suffer successfully and how to metabolize pain into song. Judging from this album, she probably won't get to write the next one. There are hints of apathy and despair everywhere, and they are heartbreaking. Loneliness has been the dominant theme of Harvey's songs, and here it's in the foreground. Escaping from it with drugs, longing for the dead who can't talk to us, the sorrow of unrequited love: it's all here. The songs have no guitar and minimal drums. A lot of minor chords played on a vertical piano, with interesting passages. All is kept simple, and brimming with tension. There are a few arrangements that would have been unthinkable 12 years ago. The Piano shows the influence of Radiohead; elsewhere you can hear a banjo and a harp (Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom). But everything is unmistakably original. One of the best musical outliers of recent music.