PJ Harvey "Dry"

"Dry" is the first studio album by PJ Harvey, the English singer-songwriter and musician, which was released on Too Pure Records on March 30, 1992. It was recorded at The Icehouse, a local studio in Yeovil, UK. The first 5000 LPs and 1000 CDs of the album included demo versions of its tracks. Indigo Records released the album in the US in the same year. In July 2020, "Dry" was reissued on vinyl and CD. The reissue included an 11-track companion album titled "Dry" - Demos, which collected all of the demos and was also released on vinyl as a stand-alone record.

According to an interview with Filter magazine in 2004, PJ Harvey expressed that "Dry" was her first opportunity to make a record and she believed it would be her last. She put all her energy into it and believed it was an extreme record. She was thrilled to have the chance to make it and wanted to ensure that everything was as good as possible since it was probably her only chance.

"Dry" was met with critical acclaim upon its release. NME critic Andrew Collins gave the album a nine-out-of-ten review, describing it as a collection of "clever, repetitive, low-slung guitar poems" and praising Polly's ability to express deep emotions through her music. Chicago Tribune reviewer Greg Kot compared "Dry" to Marianne Faithfull's Broken English and Patti Smith's Horses, awarding it three-and-a-half-out-of-four stars and stating that it was a refreshing departure from the "My Bloody Valentine guitar clone" trend. Entertainment Weekly's Billy Wyman awarded the album an A+ rating, describing it as an "uncompromising work of exhilarating, cauterizing beauty" that offered a scorching portrait of the dark side of the female psyche. Los Angeles Times reviewer Robert Hilburn gave "Dry" three-and-a-half-out-of-four stars, calling it a "seductive calling card" that signaled the arrival of an extraordinary new artist. In his Village Voice column, Robert Christgau rated "Dry" an A− and praised it for making a feminist distinction between egoist bullroar and honest irrational outpouring. Retrospective reviews of the album have also been positive, with critics praising PJ Harvey's deft lyricism and the trio's muscular sound. AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called "Dry" a forceful collection of brutally emotional songs in a four-and-a-half-out-of-five-star review. Pitchfork's Laura Snapes described the album as a volcano and the scorched earth surrounding it, ripped with landsliding guitars, cowpunk mania, twisted blues, profound extremes, and power chords that hit like boulders dropped from on high. The fourth edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide awarded "Dry" a three-and-a-half-out-of-five-star rating.