Following the breakup of her trio, English alternative rock musician PJ Harvey released her first solo album, To Bring You My Love, on February 27, 1995. Garnering critical acclaim worldwide, it’s considered to be her breakthrough album in the US and has become her best-selling studio album.
The album includes her mainstream US breakthrough, "Down By The Water," thanks to extensive airplay on radio and on MTV. It’s menacing tune about a woman who drowns her daughter and returns to the scene of the crime. Harvey says the song was not autobiographical but hesitant to reveal the meaning behind the song, saying it was "a song I didn't want to put a label on too much, like this isn't a song about some woman drowning her baby. To be quite honest, I don't really know what it is for me, myself, yet - which I don't mind because I'd much rather leave it for other people to do what they want with anyway."
The songs on the album are heavily influenced by American blues music. The first part of the haunting refrain, "little fish, big fish swimming in the water / come back here, man, gimme my daughter," was taken from Lead Belly's blues rendition of the folk standard "Salty Dog Blues."
Today's ear X-tacy features a classic track or deep-cut from the Alternative era every weekday at 10:10.
