An artist’s early work often shapes their long-term reputation. This is true for PJ Harvey: her early ’90s albums *Dry* and *Rid Of Me* established her as a powerful guitarist and vocalist, known for her candid portrayal of womanhood. This image has largely remained, but over a career spanning more than three decades, Harvey has deliberately avoided being typecast. She has ventured into various genres, including the bewitching alternative rock of *To Bring You My Love* (1995), the crunchy glam of *Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea* (2000), and the antique piano compositions of *White Chalk* (2007). The raw intensity of her initial records now seems like just the beginning, rather than a set path.
Harvey’s tenth studio album, *I Inside The Old Year Dying*—her first solo album since 2016’s *The Hope Six Demolition Project*—represents not a sharp turn, but a subtle shift in her career. Working with long-time collaborators Flood and John Parish, Harvey sought to create something new without repeating past work. The album’s meticulous arrangements, driven by moody melodies, sparse beats, and Harvey’s expressive vocals, build on her previous albums. Every note and sound is carefully chosen to enhance the emotional impact of the music. For instance, “Autumn Term” features stretched-out funk beats, while “All Souls” is minimalist with muffled piano and galloping beats. “The Nether-edge” combines droning guitar and glitchy drums to create an uneasy atmosphere.
*I Inside The Old Year Dying* defies easy categorization. It occupies a liminal space between genres, hinting at folk, electronic, gothic, post-rock, and orchestral music. This is partly due to Flood’s lush, twilight production style and Harvey’s use of field recordings and audio library sounds alongside traditional instrumentation. “I definitely hoped that I could sort of be in every era and no era all at the same time,” she told *The Guardian*. The album arrives as Harvey has expanded her creative output, releasing demos from her vault, writing music for theatre and TV, and publishing a poetry collection, *Orlam*, which serves as the lyrical source for the new album. Set in Dorset, England, *Orlam* follows a nine-year-old girl named Ira-Abel through a transformative period in her life.
Unlike the political and social critiques of *The Hope Six Demolition Project*, the new album resembles a classic epic poem or a gentler Grimm’s Fairy Tale. The lyrics are dense and challenging, weaving together themes of new beginnings, jarring endings, tentative rebirth, and loving explorations using elegant, poetic language. The imagery is fanciful and eclectic, reflecting the disorienting experience of growing up, with references ranging from “chalky children of evermore” to Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender” and vivid, dream-like characters.
Harvey’s vocal approach on this album is otherworldly. She abandons her familiar forceful delivery in favor of dramatic falsetto (“Prayer At The Gate”), soaring wails (“August”), conspiratorial narration (“All Souls”), and conversational tones (“Seem An I”). On “I Inside The Old I Dying,” she even channels Thom Yorke’s cracked croon, while Ben Wishaw adds tender shading to her voice on “August” and “A Child’s Question, August.”
Harvey’s varied vocal styles give the impression that she is inhabiting different characters in each song. This deliberate choice ensures that she avoids singing in her typical “PJ Harvey voice.” Some might cynically view this as avoiding her strengths, but a more accurate interpretation is that *I Inside The Old Year Dying* is a collection of distinct musical vignettes. Harvey, Flood, and Parish were united in their desire to explore new territory, despite the challenge of avoiding repetition in a long-term collaboration.
While *I Inside The Old Year Dying* may lack direct callbacks to Harvey’s past work, it does feature moments reminiscent of her earlier music, particularly in the final trio of songs. “August” evokes the ghostly feel of *Is This Desire?*, while “A Child’s Question, July” is playful yet ominous. The album closes with “A Noiseless Noise,” which echoes her early days with discordant guitar and pounding drums, before transitioning to a quieter moment where Harvey sings poignant lines hinting at gender nonconformity.
Harvey’s music consistently reflects her current state, rather than revisiting her past or conforming to audience expectations. This commitment to reinvention is both challenging and enriching, offering an exciting listening experience. *I Inside The Old Year Dying* demands close attention and reveals its surprises and gifts over time.