Rid Of Me

93年に発表した2ndで、メジャーデビュー作なる本作。ピクシーズとのプロディース仕事を評価してスティーヴ・アルビニ起用し、後にペイヴメントのスティーヴ・マルクマスがこの2ndや1stを評価していることを語ったように、筋金入りインディ・ファンには3rd以降の世界よりもこちらにリアルに感じるのではないか。

Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.53) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone (6/10/93) - 3 Stars - Good - "...explore[s] the toxic consequences of intimacy with a lacerating explicitness reminiscent of Marianne Faithfull's BROKEN ENGLISH..." Spin (9/99, p.138) - Ranked #37 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s." Spin (5/93, p.79) - Highly Recommended - "...plung[es] into the battle of the sexes with a saber that sharpens with each cut....the band's songs prove to be as surefooted on rocky terrain as on pop's rolling hills..." Q (12/99, p.76) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Q (1/94, p.87) - Included in Q's list of `The 50 Best Albums Of 1993' - "...about as exciting as three-piece rock music gets without actually being the Jimi Hendrix Experience..." Alternative Press (7/95, p.80) - Ranked #19 in AP's list of the `Top 99 Of '85-'95' - "...RID OF ME's `tough woman' scream attests that Harvey's lineage includes, but doesn't begin or end with, Patti Smith. Tough because the music likes it that way, woman because she was born one. This has everything to do with rock and roll...and nothing to do with some textbook treatise on womanhood..." Melody Maker (1/1/94, p.76) - Ranked #11 in Melody Maker's list of the `Albums Of The Year' for 1993 - "...Steve Albini captured her band in all its abrasive glory..." Musician (7/93, p.90) - "...Unlike DRY, which drew most of its strength from the uncluttered eloquence of Polly Harvey's songwriting, RID OF ME keeps its focus on the churning, Beefhartian clangor of her band..." Village Voice (3/1/94) - Ranked #3 in the Village Voice's 1993 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. NME (Magazine) (8/12/00, p.29) - Ranked #19 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums". NME (Magazine) (12/25/93, p.66) - Ranked #15 in New Musical Express' list of `The Top 50 Albums Of 1993.' NME (Magazine) (4/23/93, p.29) - 8 - Excellent - "...RID OF ME rises from a whisper to a scream, over and over until you can hardly bear it anymore....Don't look now, Polly, but you're a WOMAN!..." Pitchfork (Website) - "Harvey's songs are literal performances of gender; they shed light on, poke fun at, and rail against the misery of being trapped by the expectations of femaleness or maleness for one's entire life."