Skip to content
New Music

PJ Harvey Shares ‘This Mess We’re In’ Demo, Announces Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea Reissue

(NETHERLANDS OUT) NETHERLANDS - OCTOBER 18: Photo of PJ HARVEY; 18-10-2000: AMSTERDAM; P.J. HARVEY (Photo by Lex van Rossen/MAI/Redferns)

PJ Harvey shared an unreleased demo of “This Mess We’re In” from the upcoming vinyl reissue of her Stories From The City, Stories From the Sea album, which originally released in 2000. The LP, along with a collection of unreleased demos, Stories From The City, Stories From the Sea – Demos, arrives on CD, vinyl and digitalFeb. 26 via UMe/Island.

The demos for every track written Stories from the City… will comprise the new release as will the restoration of the videos for singles “A Place Called Home,” “Good Fortune” and “This Is Love.”

The original album version of “This Mess We’re In” features Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on backing vocals; the demo version is Harvey without his accompaniment.

When Stories From The City, Stories From the Sea originally came out, it earned accolades including Grammy nods for Best Rock Album and Best Female Rock Performance and in the UK, the Mercury Music Prize for Best Album.

The releases are part of a comprehensive reissue campaign where Harvey’s back catalog, plus her two albums in collaboration with John Parish, are issued on vinyl across 2020 and 2021. 

Check out the demo for “This Mess We’re In” below.

Preorder the reissue here.