Dry (album)

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Dry
File:PJHarveyDryalbumcover.jpg
Studio album by PJ Harvey
Released 30 March 1992 (1992-03-30)
Recorded September–December 1991
Studio The Icehouse (Yeovil)
Genre
Length 39:54
Label Too Pure
Producer
PJ Harvey chronology
Dry
(1992)		 Rid of Me
(1993)
Singles from Dry (album)

Dry is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, released on 30 March 1992 by Too Pure.[5] The album was recorded at The Icehouse, a local studio in Yeovil, England, and the tracks were performed by Harvey's eponymous trio. The first 5000 LPs and first 1000 CDs included demo versions of the album's tracks and Dry was subsequently released in the United States on Indigo Records. Both versions were released in 1992. Dry was reissued on vinyl and CD in July 2020: an 11-track companion album collecting all of the demos titled Dry – Demos was also released on vinyl as a stand-alone record.

Background

Speaking to Filter magazine in 2004, Harvey said of her debut album: "Dry is the first chance I ever had to make a record and I thought it would be my last. So, I put everything I had into it. It was a very extreme record. It was a great joy for me to be able to make it. I never thought I'd have that opportunity, so I felt like I had to get everything on it as well as I possibly could, because it was probably my only chance. It felt very extreme for that reason."

Reception

Critical response

Script error: No such module "Music ratings". Upon its release Dry received critical acclaim.[16] In a nine-out-of-ten review for NME, critic Andrew Collins called the album a collection of "clever, repetitive, low-slung guitar poems" and said "Polly dredges these sounds from the pit of her dissected soul and drags them out of her mouth with clenched fists."[10] Chicago Tribune reviewer Greg Kot referred to Dry as "jagged, lacerating and sexy in a disorienting sort of way" and likened the album to Broken English (1979) by Marianne Faithfull and Horses (1975) by Patti Smith; Kot awarded the album three-and-a-half-out-of-four stars, further stating "the best band out of the U.K. at the moment isn't another My Bloody Valentine guitar clone".[7] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Billy Wyman described Dry as a "scorching portrait of the dark side of the female psyche" and an "uncompromising work of exhilarating, cauterizing beauty", awarding it an A+ rating.[8] Los Angeles Times reviewer Robert Hilburn gave Dry a three-and-a-half-out-of-four-star rating, writing that it "falls somewhere in between … an instant classic [and] a seductive calling card that signals the arrival of an extraordinary new artist."[9] Critic Robert Christgau in his Village Voice column described Dry as a "cloudy but essential feminist distinction between egoist bullroar and honest irrational outpouring", rating the album an A−.[15]

Retrospective reviews of Dry have also been largely positive. AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine summarised the album as "a forceful collection of brutally emotional songs, highlighted by Harvey's deft lyricism and startling voice, as well as her trio's muscular sound" in a four-and-a-half-out-of-five-star review.[6] Writing for Pitchfork, Laura Snapes said Dry "is a volcano and the scorched earth surrounding it, ripped with landsliding guitars, cowpunk mania, twisted blues, profound extremes, and power chords that hit like boulders dropped from on high."[11] The fourth edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide, published in 2004, awarded the album a three-and-a-half-out-of-five-star rating.[13]

Commercial performance

Dry peaked on the UK Albums Chart at number 11, remaining on the chart for a total of five weeks. A month prior to the album's release, its second single, "Sheela-Na-Gig", had peaked at number 69 on the UK Singles Chart.[17] Despite Dry's critical success in the United States the album did not chart on any mainstream or independent Billboard chart, however, "Sheela-Na-Gig" peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in September 1992.[18]

Dry was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in March 2005 after shipments of 60,000 copies.[19] According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album had sold 176,000 copies in the US as of December 2005.[20]

Accolades

In 1992 Dry was featured in several publications' year-end best-of lists. It placed at number 12 in Select's list of the best albums of the year,[21] number 18 in Spin's "20 Best Albums of 1992" list,[22] and was also featured in Q's "Recordings of the Year" feature.[23]

Dry has since been featured on several best-of-all-time lists. It was ranked number 70 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Best Debut Albums of All Time" and number 151 on NME's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.[24][25] Dry is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[4]

Track listing

All lyrics written by PJ Harvey, all music composed by Harvey, except where noted.

No. Title Length
1. "Oh My Lover"   3:57
2. "O Stella"   2:36
3. "Dress"   3:16
4. "Victory"   3:16
5. "Happy and Bleeding"   4:50
6. "Sheela-Na-Gig"   3:11
7. "Hair"   3:45
8. "Joe"   2:33
9. "Plants and Rags"   4:09
10. "Fountain"   3:52
11. "Water"   4:32
Total length:
 39:54
1992 limited-edition Demonstration CD[26] bonus tracks
No. Title Length
12. "Oh My Lover" (Demo version, 1991) 2:30
13. "O Stella" (Demo version, 1991) 3:16
14. "Dress" (Demo version, 1991) 3:17
15. "Victory" (Demo version, 1991) 4:19
16. "Happy and Bleeding" (Demo version, 1991) 4:44
17. "Sheela-Na-Gig" (Demo version, 1991) 3:15
18. "Hair" (Demo version, 1991) 3:37
19. "Joe" (Demo version, 1991) 3:16
20. "Plants and Rags" (Demo version, 1991) 3:32
21. "Fountain" (Demo version, 1991) 3:05
22. "Water" (Demo version, 1991) 4:32
Total length:
 78:55

Personnel

All personnel credits adapted from Dry's album notes.[27]

PJ Harvey Trio

Additional musicians

  • Ian Olliver – bass (3, 5)
  • Ben Groenevelt – double bass (3)
  • Mike Paine – guitar (9)
  • Chas Dickie – cello (9)

Technical personnel

Design personnel

Charts

Chart (1992) Peak
position
UK Albums (OCC)[28] 11
Chart (2001) Peak
position
French Albums (SNEP)[29] 149
Chart (2020) Peak
position
Norwegian Vinyl Albums (VG-lista)[30] 3

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
United Kingdom (BPI)[31] Silver 60,000

^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

References

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  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. NB User must define search parameters either by entering "PJ Harvey" into Keywords, selecting "Artist" from Search by and clicking Search or by entering "Dry" into Keywords, selecting "Title" from Search by and clicking Search.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  29. ↑ "Lescharts.com – PJ Harvey – Dry". Hung Medien.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter Dry in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Silver in the field By Award. Click Search

External links

  • Dry at Discogs (list of releases)
  • DryLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at MusicBrainz (list of releases)
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