White Chalk
White Chalk is the seventh studio album by English singer-songwriter and musician PJ Harvey, released on 24 September 2007 on Island Records.
Work on the album started in 2006, with producer Flood and John Parish, who also worked on her To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire? albums. Other collaborators on White Chalk are Eric Drew Feldman and Jim White from Dirty Three.
The first single released from White Chalk was "When Under Ether" on 17 September 2007 on digital download and 7" vinyl. A second single, "The Piano," was released on 26 November 2007. A third, "The Devil," was released on 7", download, and CD formats in March 2008.
Style
The previous album, Uh Huh Her, had a raw sound but for this record White Chalk, Rolling Stones magazine noted that Harvey "delved further into a Goth-like vibe in the much quieter, haunting, piano-based music". For this album she gave up the traditional three-piece sound guitar/bass/drums and recorded a set of songs for piano, despite her lack of expertise on the instrument. In an interview in The Wire she explained, "the great thing about learning a new instrument from scratch is that it liberates your imagination."Vocally, she sang in a much higher register than usual, at a pitch outside her normal range, and "howled about being possessed by demon lovers and ghosts". Lyrically, Harvey continued with the dark, moody themes typical of much of her music.
In an interview with NME, Harvey elaborated the meaning behind the album's title: "I just like the sound of the words white chalk. It can be millions of years old but erased in a second, and somehow has a timeless quality... The timelessness became more the source of inspiration".
Reception
White Chalk received generally positive reviews and has a score of 80 out of 100 on Metacritic. Uncut hailed the album in glowing terms, calling it "an album of lonely beauty and piercing sorrow" before concluding, "White Chalk is P.J. Harvey back at the peak of her considerable powers." The Observer gave the album 5 stars out of 5, while Robert Christgau picked out one song from the album, "When Under Ether", as a "choice cut".Accolades
Formats
The US release is available on CD and 33⅓ rpm LP. The UK release is available on CD and 45 rpm vinyl record. White Chalk is also available on iTunes complete with a bonus track, "Wait".Track listing
Personnel
All personnel credits adapted from the album's liner notes.;Musicians
- PJ Harvey – vocals, piano, acoustic guitar, bass, keyboards, zither, harmonica, harp, cigfiddle
- John Parish – drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, percussion, backing vocals
- Eric Drew Feldman – piano, keyboards, optigan, mellotron, minimoog, backing vocals
- Jim White – drums, percussion
- Nico Brown – concertina, backing vocals
- Andrew Dickson – backing vocals
- Bridget Pearse – backing vocals
- Martin Brunsden – backing vocals
- Nick Bicât – backing vocals
- Flood – producer, engineer, mixing
- John Parish – producer, mixing
- PJ Harvey – producer, mixing, additional engineer
- Catherine Marks – assistant engineer
- Andrew Savors – assistant engineer
- Ali Chant – additional engineer
- Maria Mochnacz – artwork, photography
- Rob Crane – artwork
Chart positions
| Chart | Peak position |
| Australian ARIA Albums Chart | 24 |
| Austrian Top 40 | 66 |
| Belgian Albums Chart | 12 |
| Belgian Albums Chart | 33 |
| Danish Albums Chart | 18 |
| Dutch Top 100 | 34 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 32 |
| French SNEP Albums Chart | 10 |
| German Albums Chart | 54 |
| Irish Albums Chart | 15 |
| Italian FIMI Albums Chart | 66 |
| New Zealand RIANZ Top 40 | 35 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart | 7 |
| Portuguese Albums Chart | 20 |
| Spanish Albums Chart | 55 |
| Swedish Albums Chart | 24 |
| Swiss Hitparade Albums Chart | 21 |
| UK Albums Chart | 11 |
| US Billboard 200 | 65 |
| US Billboard Alternative Albums | 14 |
| US Billboard Tastemaker Albums | 3 |