Is This Desire? is pure beauty in every sense of the word (I’m talking about the track right now). It gives me the goosebumps because we’ve all asked ourselves the same question, felt the same way, at some point in time. There’s something seriously haunting about PJ’s voice here too (the high and low notes, the way she grinds down on some verses) and the melodramatic undertoned music that harmonizes the song in such a magnificent and scenic way. The way it builds up, the whole story unraveling, the climax, giving into desire and lust…it’s a piece of brilliance that a lot of people will just disregard as another song, but if they took the time to appreciate every word and guitar chord, I’ve no doubt it will shake them too.
And essentially, this is why I rank this album higher than any of her preceding or subsequent ones; there are just too many emotional stories, tales and secrets waiting to be unraveled in this album, all that are incredibly significant in their individual compelling ways, and in some ways, even entwined.
When comparing it to her succeeding albums, you can really appreciate the amount of thought that went into this album—it’s mysterious and haunting in a way that White Chalk tried to intensify but only succeeded in dwindling its impact (Mark Prindle disagrees with me on this) and the lyrics were something else entirely. I’ll be the first to admit that this was underdone, back when PJ wasn’t bothered with what would be a flop in the rankings, back when she was eating potatoes alone for months to help stir her creativity and dig deep into her soul.
Songs like Angelene, My Beautiful Leah (I just love the way she cuts it off abruptly at the end) and The River (chilling) really portray PJ’s talent in all its glory and manage to reveal Polly Jean’s magic and diversity in music because she is assorted, like a bag of gloomy skittles.
