Nailed it Anna.

As usual!

Dry is a way better album. Albini wrecked this one with big grubby acoustic yuckiness.

oh please with your i'm-too-cool-to-like-albini-production. you probably thought daydream nation was a sellout, too.

rid of me is a top-10 towering achievement of the 90s.

@3: Dry is one of the best albums ever.

Didn't realize Albini produced Rid of Me, but now that you mention it, it's obvious. I think Snake is a gem of a little punk track, however.

You Said Something and The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore are both wonderful songs from her later catalog.

@4 Thank you. I usually look forward to Anna's album reviews but when I saw the cover for rid of me i developed a pit in my stomach. This record is beyond reproach and I wasn't looking forward to any hand wringing or equivocation. And that is just what I got. Dammit Anna!
As a woman (which I am not) this record should mean so much more to you.

@Max Solomon: It's not a matter of being cool, it's a matter of TURN THE FUCKING TREBLE DOWN YOU EAR-DAMAGED MOTHERFUCKER.

@7: well, since I think I have hearing damage from any number of shows up to and including MBV at the moore in 1992, maybe I can't tell anymore. it doesn't ruin my appreciation of the record like the shit mix of raw power.

are all albini productions similarly compromised?

Harvey's last album, Let England Shake is absolutely brilliant from start to finish. Her turgid, tinnitic 90s blues rock, like Rid of Me, is not. It's boring as hell. I didn't like Dry at all either. I saw her perform, too, supporting Rid of Me and it was boring guitar wank. I'm sorry it put me off her for so long, because she's been really sharp and inventive since then, as I have subsequently discovered.

@8, I would say so, yes, though the kind of thing he's known for actually enhances The Wedding Present's Seamonsters, which is abrasive guitar rock but not bluesy in the slightest, which is what preserves it.

Have we had Anna do Exile in Guyville yet?

Request: Please have Anna listen to and review Diamanda Galas. Thanks.

Fnarf, I am sorry to say that you are wrong. Maybe not about Let England Shake, which I haven't heard yet, but about the marvel and wonder of Dry and Rid of Me, both so damn great. TURGID? How dare you. The least you could do is recognize her female rock status by calling it cavernous or hollow. TURGID should be reserved for puffed-up, arrogant male rockers.

This was the most life-altering album of my adolescence. I WILL PLAY IT NOW AND ALL DAY LONG.

Thank you.