After teasing a new single called "A Child's Question, August" earlier this week, PJ Harvey has officially returned — her 10th studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying will arrive July 7 on Partisan, and you can hear "A Child's Question, August" below.
In a statement about the record, Harvey described these new songs as offering "a resting space, a solace, a comfort, a balm — which feels timely for the times we're in." The album was recorded with longtime collaborators John Parish and Flood, and came to Harvey after several years of musical stagnation in which "she had lost her connection with music itself, a realization that was troubling beyond words."
The songs that would become I Inside the Old Year Dying "all came out of me in about three weeks," Harvey said. Harvey, Parish and Flood then recorded the album live at North West London's Battery Studios, embracing improvisation and first ideas.
"I think the album is about searching, looking — the intensity of first love, and seeking meaning," says Harvey. "Not that there has to be a message, but the feeling I get from the record is one of love — it's tinged with sadness and loss, but it's loving. I think that's what makes it feel so welcoming: so open."
Lead single "A Child's Question, August" is sombre but faintly hopeful, driven by Harvey's reverb-soaked guitar chords and tumbling percussion. It splits the difference between a couple of Harvey's past iterations, folding in some of the gothic folk of 2007's White Chalk with the prickling mystery of 1998's Is This Desire?
Harvey's last album was 2016's The Hope Six Demolition Project. Listen to "A Child's Question, August" and check out the I Inside the Old Year Dying tracklist below.
I Inside the Old Year Dying:
1. Prayer at the Gate
2. Autumn Term
3. Lwonesome Tonight
4. Seem an I
5. The Nether-edge
6. I Inside the Old Year Dying
7. All Souls
8. A Child's Question, August
9. I Inside the Old I Dying
10. August
11. A Child's Question, July
12. A Noiseless Noise
Pre-order I Inside the Old Year Dying.
In a statement about the record, Harvey described these new songs as offering "a resting space, a solace, a comfort, a balm — which feels timely for the times we're in." The album was recorded with longtime collaborators John Parish and Flood, and came to Harvey after several years of musical stagnation in which "she had lost her connection with music itself, a realization that was troubling beyond words."
The songs that would become I Inside the Old Year Dying "all came out of me in about three weeks," Harvey said. Harvey, Parish and Flood then recorded the album live at North West London's Battery Studios, embracing improvisation and first ideas.
"I think the album is about searching, looking — the intensity of first love, and seeking meaning," says Harvey. "Not that there has to be a message, but the feeling I get from the record is one of love — it's tinged with sadness and loss, but it's loving. I think that's what makes it feel so welcoming: so open."
Lead single "A Child's Question, August" is sombre but faintly hopeful, driven by Harvey's reverb-soaked guitar chords and tumbling percussion. It splits the difference between a couple of Harvey's past iterations, folding in some of the gothic folk of 2007's White Chalk with the prickling mystery of 1998's Is This Desire?
Harvey's last album was 2016's The Hope Six Demolition Project. Listen to "A Child's Question, August" and check out the I Inside the Old Year Dying tracklist below.
I Inside the Old Year Dying:
1. Prayer at the Gate
2. Autumn Term
3. Lwonesome Tonight
4. Seem an I
5. The Nether-edge
6. I Inside the Old Year Dying
7. All Souls
8. A Child's Question, August
9. I Inside the Old I Dying
10. August
11. A Child's Question, July
12. A Noiseless Noise
Pre-order I Inside the Old Year Dying.
