Dance Hall At Louse Point

PJ Harvey's Dance Hall at Louse Point is an excellent and often unfairly overlooked collaboration with her long-time collaborator John Parish.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this is late-night mood music of the highest order. The lo-fi, stripped-down production and Parish's stark musical backing perfectly complement some of Harvey's rawest vocals to date.

Throughout the record, she swings dramatically between different vocal registers, from angelic choirgirl falsetto to creepy whisper to shredded gut howls, as if she's role-playing different characters for each song. She sings every song on this album with a demonic, throat-clenching intensity that's almost frightening.

Produced by Parish and Harvey, and originally released in September 1996, Dance Hall At Louse Point features the single "That Was My Veil." The reissue is faithful to the original recording with vinyl cutting by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering, overseen by John Parish.