The ever-enchanting PJ Harvey stopped by Conan Monday night to play “The Last Living Rose,” an evocative ditty from her stellar new album, Let England Shake. —- Clad in a white dress and a curious white-feathered headdress — not to mention a white electric guitar that was nearly as large as her diminutive frame — Harvey’s body language seemed oddly upbeat as she sang about goddamn Europeans, battered books, drunken beatings, dead sea captains and stinking alleys while ably backed by her band of middle-aged white dudes (including longtime collaborator John Parish).
As I wrote a few weeks ago, Harvey’s latest gets better and digs deeper with every spin via its textured arrangements — I love the bugle call in “This Glorious Land” — and unexpected, Folk-tinged stylistic U-turns. Her more overtly topical lyrical bent isn’t always for the best, but her voice is as affecting as ever.
As for Conan, I admit I’ve watched his new show far less often than I should given that he probably does the old-school talk-show thing (i.e., the long-standing mix of monologue, skits, celebrity interview and musical act) better than anyone else on the current landscape. It’s reassuring to see that he’s kept his geeky persona and lo-fi, deadpan-infused approach to the show’s skits intact. And his back-and-forth with sidekick Andy Richter is welcome return to the duo’s late-’90s heyday.
Here’s the performance:
This article appears in Apr 13-19, 2011.
