White Chalk
A short, piano-based album sung in a higher register, and a step away from the trio sound.
PJ Harvey, 2007
- Released
- 24 September 2007
- Recorded
- November 2006 to March 2007
- Label
- Island
- Producer
- Flood, John Parish, PJ Harvey
- Length
- 33:57
Recorded between November 2006 and March 2007 with Flood and Parish, it is built around piano. Work began in 2006, and Eric Drew Feldman and Jim White of Dirty Three joined the sessions. Harvey gave up the traditional guitar, bass and drums trio sound and wrote for an instrument she did not play well. In The Wire she said that learning a new instrument from scratch liberates your imagination. She sang in a much higher register than usual.
She said she liked the sound of the words white chalk, because chalk can be millions of years old but erased in a second. It reached eleven in the UK and 65 in the US, and Metacritic scores it 80. Uncut called it an album of lonely beauty and piercing sorrow, and The Observer gave it five stars out of five. The singles were When Under Ether on 17 September 2007, The Piano and, in March 2008, The Devil. The iTunes edition added a bonus track, Wait. The Tascam 8-track that Harvey used for its demos is now in the archive at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Track listing
- The Devil2:58
- Dear Darkness3:10
- Grow Grow Grow3:23
- When Under Ether2:25
- White Chalk3:13
- Broken Harp1:59
- Silence3:11
- To Talk To You4:01
- The Piano2:37
- Before Departure3:49
- The Mountain3:11
Personnel
- PJ Harvey vocals, piano, acoustic guitar, bass, keyboards, zither, harmonica, harp, cigfiddle; producer, mixing, additional engineering
- John Parish drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, percussion, backing vocals; producer, mixing
- Eric Drew Feldman piano, keyboards, optigan, mellotron, minimoog, backing vocals
- Jim White drums, percussion
- Flood producer, engineer, mixing
- Nico Brown concertina and backing vocals on Before Departure
- Andrew Dickson backing vocals on Before Departure
- Bridget Pearse backing vocals on Before Departure
- Martin Brunsden backing vocals on Before Departure
- Nick Bicat backing vocals on Before Departure
- Maria Mochnacz artwork, photography
- Rob Crane artwork
More from PJ Harvey
Dry (1992), Rid of Me (1993), To Bring You My Love (1995), Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000), Let England Shake (2011), The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016)
Sources
- White Chalk, Wikipedia
- Beyond the music: inside PJ Harvey's archive, Victoria and Albert Museum (2026-06-29)
- White Chalk (master release), Discogs
- White Chalk (Island vinyl release), Discogs (2007-09-24)