Day After Day: Dry

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Dry 

Hey, I made it to Day 2! I had a few candidates to write about today, but I finally settled on PJ Harvey's "Dry" because I'm once again doing a dry January. This is the third straight year (in 2021, I kept it going all the way to Memorial Day weekend) I'm abstaining, mainly in an effort to drop some weight. Last year, I dropped about 12 pounds in January, but I put it all back on when I was unable to run all summer because of heel soreness. Long story short, I went to PT and have started running the last few months, but I felt like cutting out beer (and sugar and junk food) will help me get to where I want to be. I've actually found it's not that difficult to stop, but I do miss it and plan to imbibe again next month.

As for the song, well, you can't get much better than PJ Harvey. I started listening to her with 1993's Rid of Me album, which "Dry" is on. Not sure why it wasn't included on her debut album, which was called Dry, but maybe it wasn't where she wanted it to be a year earlier. I missed the boat on that album, but Rid of Me caught my attention in the spring of '93. The first single, "50ft Queenie" was getting play on WFNX and MTV and PJ definitely stood out from the male-dominated grunge scene that had been capturing my interest at the time. Not that there weren't great female artists releasing music then: The Breeders, Liz Phair and Belly were all breaking through with excellent albums. But PJ brought something different: raw, angry lyrics about sex and relationships, lacerating guitar lines, bone dry production from Steve Albini, and whisper-to-a-roar volume shifts.

"Dry" begins with a slow rumble of drums and is propelled along by Harvey's slide guitar, turning the typical bluesman braggadocio on its ear as the song's protagonist informs her lover "You leave me dry." The album as a whole turns the table on male-female power dynamics; Harvey's characters are in control, and they won't let you forget it. It was reported that she wrote the album after having a near nervous breakdown, but whatever the case, Rid of Me is powerful, devastating and an incredible achievement, especially given how much good music was coming out that year. 

Harvey would go on to split up with her backing band and release an equally incredible and totally different sounding album in 1995 with To Bring You My Love. She has continued to defy expectations over the years, including last year's I Inside the Old Year Dying. Her shifts in sound don't always succeed entirely, but they're always interesting. I raise a glass of water in her honor.