PJ Harvey, born in Bridport, Dorset in 1969, is an English singer-songwriter who reinvents herself with nearly every record — the only artist to win the Mercury Prize twice. Start with Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) or the wartime concept album Let England Shake (2011). Dig into PJ Harvey vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Polly Jean Harvey was born in Bridport, Dorset, England on October 9, 1969 and raised on her family's farm. She launched her recording career in 1991 as a member of the original PJ Harvey trio with Rob Ellis (drums) and Stephen Vaughan (bass). The trio recorded Dry (1992) and Rid of Me (1993, produced by Steve Albini) before Harvey dissolved the trio and continued as a solo artist with rotating collaborators. Her 1995 album To Bring You My Love brought her international commercial breakthrough. Her creative reinventions across her multi-decade career - particularly the Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000, with Thom Yorke contributions), the White Chalk (2007, piano-based intimacy pivot), and the Let England Shake (2011, political concept addressing British wars and imperialism) - have established her as one of the most important contemporary singer-songwriters. She is the only artist to win the British Mercury Prize twice (Stories from the City 2001 and Let England Shake 2011). She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013. She has parallel work as a writer (Orlam, 2022 - a novel in verse) and visual artist.
PJ Harvey's sound combines alternative rock, art rock, indie rock, post-punk, alt-country, chamber pop, blues rock, and singer-songwriter with her distinctive vocal delivery (range from intimate whisper to extreme banshee scream), varied compositional approaches across her multi-decade career, and lyrical content addressing relationships, gender, identity, mortality, war, and broader contemporary themes drawing on literary and political reference points.
Too Pure, Island Records, Vagrant, and Partisan pressings of the PJ Harvey catalog have been issued in multiple color variant editions and limited deluxe pressings, with collector demand.
Listeners new to PJ Harvey typically start with Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) or Let England Shake (2011).
