After far too long away, Polly Jean Harvey returns with her first new material since the wonderful Stories From The City Stories From The Sea album. Some may have feared that the Mercury Music Prize winning success of that record may have blunted Harvey's edge - it hasn't.
The Letter starts with a filthy sounding guitar lick and becomes steadily more carnal as the song progresses. With lyrics like, "Take the cap off your pen, wet the envelope and lick it, lick it," Harvey makes the simple task of writing a letter sound like the most erotic thing on earth.
Musically, this is certainly a return to the sound of Dry - rawer than the commercial nous of the last album, but not as traumatic as Rid Of Me. The forthcoming Uh Huh Her album should be another winning chapter in the career one of the country's premier talents.
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