Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Music

All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2009
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000

Upcoming &
Recent Releases

sort by namesort by score

70 AFI
65 Air
71 Alice In Chains
77 Amerie
85 The Antlers
75 Arctic Monkeys
68 As Tall As Lions
82 Atlas Sound
75 The Avett Brothers
67 Backstreet Boys
56 Bad Lieutenant
68 Devendra Banhart
72 Lou Barlow
88 Baroness
69 Basement Jaxx
81 David Bazan
72 Brendan Benson
72 The Big Pink
96 Big Star
46 Billy Talent
75 The Black Crowes
51 Black Mold
68 Blitzen Trapper
75 BLK JKS
77 A.A. Bondy
73 The Bottle Rockets
63 Box Elders
65 Boys Like Girls
76 Brand New
73 Tyondai Braxton
87 Brother Ali
70 Ian Brown
75 Michael Buble
78 Built To Spill
61 Colbie Caillat
79 Califone
68 Mariah Carey
84 Brandi Carlile
73 Julian Casablancas
83 Rosanne Cash
69 Castanets
65 The Cave Singers
84 Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
79 Vic Chesnutt
75 Choir Of Young Believers
81 Circulatory System
68 The Clean
84 The Clientele
71 Cobra Starship
85 Converge
71 Eric Copeland
80 Cymbals Eat Guitars
71 Datarock
59 Dead By Sunrise
76 Dead Man's Bones
88 Destroyer
63 The Dodos
77 Drive-By Truckers
66 Bob Dylan
44 The Entrance Band
67 Esser
69 Fanfarlo
63 Felix Da Housecat
68 Fink
78 The Flaming Lips
66 Flight Of The Conchords
79 Florence And The Machine
67 John Fogerty
83 Fuck Buttons
71 Nelly Furtado
47 Gary Go
68 Ghostface Killah
79 Girls
69 Gossip
62 David Gray
66 David Guetta
79 Richard Hawley
74 Mayer Hawthorne
66 Headlights
79 HEALTH
77 Joe Henry
66 Hockey
69 Whitney Houston
68 Imogen Heap
59 Jack Ingram
79 Islands
73 Jessie James
74 Jamie T
65 Jay-Z
51 Jet
69 Daniel Johnston
76 Karen O And The Kids
72 Toby Keith
69 Kid Cudi
65 Kings Of Convenience
62 Sean Kingston
64 KISS
76 Kris Kristofferson
68 KRS-One & Buckshot
76 La Roux
84 Miranda Lambert
72 Ledisi
75 Sondre Lerche
56 Juliette Lewis
82 Lightning Bolt
73 Little Dragon
44 Pixie Lott
73 Lyle Lovett
66 Lovvers
75 Baaba Maal
77 Madness
84 Madonna
85 Manic Street Preachers
62 Maps
55 Massive Attack
57 Matisyahu
67 Reba McEntire
66 Tim McGraw
65 Brian McKnight
79 Mew
77 Malcolm Middleton
77 Mika
68 Amy Millan
76 Mission Of Burma
76 Molina And Johnson
80 Monsters Of Folk
62 Morrissey
85 Mount Eerie
78 The Mountain Goats
62 Múm
72 Muse
66 Willie Nelson
78 Nirvana
97 Nirvana
72 Nisennenmondai
80 No Age
71 Noah And The Whale
75 Noisettes
79 Nudge
47 Dolores O'Riordan
74 Os Mutantes
73 Osso
81 Owen
76 Paramore
76 Pastels And Tenniscoats
51 Sean Paul
80 Pearl Jam
66 Jemina Pearl
72 Jack Penate
65 Phish
82 Pissed Jeans
61 Pitbull
79 A Place To Bury Strangers
66 Robert Pollard
79 Polvo
72 Porcupine Tree
80 Q-Tip
80 R.E.M.
89 Raekwon
69 Rain Machine
70 Ramona Falls
75 Dizzee Rascal
75 The Raveonettes
76 Jay Reatard
82 Reigning Sound
81 Rodrigo Y Gabriela
79 Russian Circles
69 Buffy Sainte-Marie
73 Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
61 Sally Shapiro
78 Shudder To Think
70 Simian Mobile Disco
58 Simple Minds
72 Six Organs Of Admittance
69 Slaughterhouse
80 Slayer
61 The Slits
62 Mindy Smith
78 Soulsavers
77 Speech Debelle
58 Spiral Stairs
58 Squarepusher
55 Steel Panther
73 Sufjan Stevens
52 Rod Stewart
65 Joss Stone
75 George Strait
83 Barbra Streisand
76 A Sunny Day In Glasgow
74 Susanna And The Magical Orchestra
78 The Swell Season
76 David Sylvian
83 Taken By Trees
78 Tegan And Sara
68 The Temper Trap
72 Themselves
82 They Might Be Giants
67 Third Eye Blind
66 J Tillman
69 Times New Viking
57 Tokio Hotel
67 Trey Songz
71 The Twilight Sad
58 Carrie Underwood
56 The Used
68 Various Artists
70 Various Artists
74 Various Artists
77 The Very Best
71 Kurt Vile
67 Vivian Girls
71 Volcano Choir
76 Rufus Wainwright
59 Weezer
80 White Denim
76 Why?
83 Wild Beasts
80 Wildbirds & Peacedrums
59 Andrew W.K.
71 Patrick Wolf
67 Wolfmother
84 The xx
79 Yo La Tengo
83 Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band
51 Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
59 Zero 7

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

White Chalk

EMAILPRINTby PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey reviews
80
8.6 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 38 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 59 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >

Album Info

Label: Island

Release Date: 25 September 2007

Discs: 1 disc

Genre(s): Rock, Alternative

Summary

The British singer's latest album was produced by John Parrish and Flood.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Observer Music Monthly

Nothing Harvey has done in the past, however, can prepare you for her eighth album, White Chalk, whose cover is as singular as the tunes therein.

Read Full Review >
100

The Phoenix

White Chalk is more chamber music, and a dark chamber at that. The only flickers of light come from Harvey’s voice: high, airy, and imperiled as she weaves her echo-coated and darkly soulful spell till the story’s bleak finale.

Read Full Review >
100

Slant Magazine

White Chalk, wholly self-contained and uncompromised, is a work of literary depth and complexity.

Read Full Review >
91

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Harvey has one of the most forceful voices around, but here she relies on her silk-thin upper register to create a delicate album that skates across despair without ever quite sinking into it.

Read Full Review >
90

musicOMH.com

Constantly brilliant. White Chalk is an amazing album, racked with beauty, stricken with fragility and haunted with something otherworldly.

Read Full Review >
90

Hot Press

Beautiful, arcane, unsettling--and that's only the cover. White Chalk isn't so much a record, as a great effort at dragging you into another world.

Read Full Review >
84

cokemachineglow

I can think of nothing more liberating than to dive into its dark waters.

Read Full Review >
84

Filter

But without a doubt the change on White Chalk is steps beyond those we have seen from PJ in the past, which makes one question her intent.

Read Full Review >
80

The Guardian

The austerity of Harvey's self-imposed constraints is uncompromising but rewarding; she forces herself out of her comfort zone, and takes the listener with her.

Read Full Review >
80

No Ripcord

Harvey’s audio experiments are celebrated with the release of each new album. But I wonder what she would do without any limitations.

Read Full Review >
80

The Wire

Harvey's new strategy has been successful although White Chalk might be something of a curio, it's certainly her most haunting work. [Oct 2007, p.60]

80

Q Magazine

It's so alluring you have no choice but to follow. [Oct 2007, p.98]

80

Boston Globe

The music is positively spectral, as if she's set up her sound board in the spaces where her absent lover, unborn child, and grandmother used to be.

Read Full Review >
80

Dot Music

This yet again reveals PJ Harvey to be one of the UK's greatest contemporary songwriters.

Read Full Review >
80

Village Voice

As usual, the excellent mix--opaque but sunlit--helps; as usual, we eagerly await her next album.

Read Full Review >
80

Dusted Magazine

White Chalk shifts between comforting melancholy and supremely discomforting performativity with preternatural ease.

Read Full Review >
80

All Music Guide

It rivals "Dance Hall at Louse Point" for its willingness to challenge listeners, but it's far removed from "Uh Huh Her," which was arguably more listenable but a lot less remarkable. In fact, this may be Harvey's most undiluted album yet.

Read Full Review >
80

Billboard

Harvey's mostly bare arrangements, stark vocal delivery and razor-sharp lyrics add up to a poignant, haunting rumination on what makes--and breaks--a life

Read Full Review >
80

Sputnikmusic

There's not a weak track here, and on close inspection each song could be singled out as a highlight if debased from the album.

Read Full Review >
80

Uncut

An album of lonely beauty and piercing sorrow, White Chalk is P.J. Harvey back at the peak of her considerable powers.

Read Full Review >
80

BBC collective

Even by her own unsettling standards, however, her seventh album is disturbing, a collection of smudged and spectral laments that appear to have been written before the invention of penicillin.

Read Full Review >
80

Rolling Stone

It's stronger and more assertive than 2004's "Uh Huh Her."

Read Full Review >
80

Delusions of Adequacy

A poignant and powerful collection.

Read Full Review >
80

Mojo

It's a brave and brilliant refocusing of her energies, virtually a rebirth. [Oct 2007, p.91]

80

Drowned In Sound

With its bones on show and chest wide open, White Chalk may not be the greatest album of all time, it may not be to everyone's tastes, and it may not even be Polly’s finest. But let it and it'll haunt you.

Read Full Review >
75

Prefix Magazine

This album will still take away the breath you aren't holding: It's at once bleak, aching, and insidiously beautiful.

Read Full Review >
70

Spin

There's a coiled power here equal to Harvey's more muscular stuff. [Oct 2007, p.95]

70

New Musical Express

Frustratingly, though, White Chalk isn't consistent enough to be a classic PJ album, and if you're new to her music, this isn't the ideal place to start.

Read Full Review >
70

PopMatters

White Chalk is as penetrating as the loudest, fiercest moments on previous albums, but less from moments of aggression than from a chilling atmosphere of restrained frenzy.

Read Full Review >
70

Tiny Mix Tapes

Polly has always done well to play outside her comfort zone, and in doing so on this album, she crafts a reminder more effective than her return-to-form attempt on "Uh Huh Her."

Read Full Review >
70

Under The Radar

The album will puzzle some fans with its uncharacteristic sound, but it will surely intrigue many more. [Fall 2007, p.73]

68

Pitchfork

On the right day, at the right time, the album's powerfully claustrophobic intimacy is more palatable; on the wrong day, at the wrong time, in the wrong frame of mind, White Chalk may be the longest half-hour in the world.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle

They're still about the classic Harvey tropes of repression and longing, but Chalk's fixated on death and madness, at times feeling claustrophobic in its emptiness.

Read Full Review >
60

Paste Magazine

Put in context, White Chalk serves her purposes, much as Bruce Springsteen’s "Nebraska" served his. On initial listen, the album is not a step forward, nor is it a step back, but rather a lateral move intended to leave breathing room for her next attack.

Read Full Review >
60

Blender

Refining the spare sound of her last studio album "Uh Huh Her," she herein presents an 11-part song cycle about loss, longing and wandering bereft through the moors. [Oct 2007, p.108]

58

Stylus Magazine

Over the course of eleven songs of grim predestination, virtually no modernizing or even identifying signposts are allowed to disturb the terrain.

Read Full Review >
50

Entertainment Weekly

On the largely piano-based White Chalk, she retreats into an odd little-girl-lost persona, singing almost entirely in a tremulous higher key that strangles the most powerful instrument in her arsenal: that voice.

Read Full Review >
20

NOW Magazine

The painful White Chalk is either a studio experiment gone horribly wrong or a crafty bit of career self-sabotage by a sensitive artist who'd rather make sculptures in the desert than play pop star.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 59 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

John R gave it a9:
This is PJs inevitable mind-control over her fans. We wait with bated breath for the next album, only to believe we've been horribly wronged upon the first listen. Then, just when you're resolved to throw the album off of the roof, you find that the music has settled deep within you. White Chalk is no different.

Jyotirmaya Das gave it a7:
Stark and yet very engaging. Sounds like it could have used more background music to give it a fuller sound.... but one senses that Ms. Harvey purposefully decided against that. It's a rebirth...an self-serving assessment of her own creativity. That being said Polly Jean Harvey has released a good album that I only listen to either very early while still in bed or late at night while falling asleep...

Alan Koslowski gave it a6:
A marginal improvement over Uh-Huh Her because it's more cohesive. It's a successful, but undeniably modest album. The minimalist piano musical landscape works, but is so spare and unambitious it's not very compelling. The relentlessly mournful songwriting is so understated (for the most part) even at just over 30 min becomes tedious after the first few songs. Harvey is always at her best when she's emphatic and cogent, and at her worst when eloquent and understated. This album is clearly the latter. Even though it's only her second release in 7 years, maybe she should go on hiatus until she finds the motivation to make a truly compelling album.

Damon Mitchell gave it a10:
I haven't had my heart so beautifully broken in a long time. This feels like the end of a trilogy in "Stories from..." she was in love with a boy and America, in "Uh Huh Her" the love affair was over but she had enough anger and fire to spit about it, in "White Chalk" the fire is out and it's an empty place where what's left really resonates.

Niamh OH gave it a9:
an excellent piece. she's outdone herself and surprised us all once again. niamh thewhiteponystolemyheart.blogspot.com

rocco cavaliere gave it an8:
Great album...but, is she pj? Really?

Patrick Wheeler gave it a9:
Not since Rid Of Me in the early nineties has a PJ album struck a chord so strongly with me. I am roughly the same age as Polly and she seems to be in the same head space as me right now. So few artists have the guts to be this honest and not worry about upsetting fans who expect reiteration. Only To Bring You My Love is a more complete album. If you haven't heard Polly before get TBYML, then: Is This Desire?, then White Chalk.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use