Pitchfork

Polly Jean Harvey's use of piano on her new album White Chalk has been widely noted. Paradoxically, that album's "The Piano" relies mostly on acoustic guitars, Jim White's compulsive drumming, and haunted-house harp. Ebony and ivory are conspicuously absent. In this performance for Norwegian radio (apparently from the same session as "The Mountain"), Harvey stands alone strumming a classical guitar, her ghostly ooh-oohs giving the song a violence you wouldn't expect from such a simple arrangement. Her voice rises again to Tim Buckley-like heights for the song's closing incantation, "Oh god, I miss you," bringing an otherwordly force to an otherwise familiar sentiment.

Video:> PJ Harvey: "The Piano"

Bonus: The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation has also posted a video of Harvey performing a song we've posted quite a bit around these parts, White Chalk's first single, "When Under Ether". Watch it here.

[original tracks from White Chalk; out now in the UK and due 10/02/07 in America on Island]