PJ Harvey “4-Track Demos” 1993. Island Records. Noisy, super-raw demos and unreleased tracks from the Rid of Me (1993) era. This sort-of companion record to the widely critically acclaimed Rid of Me (produced by Steve Albini) was recorded at her home and produced by Harvey herself. It hit #19 on the UK charts. According to Wiki, she “briefly contemplated releasing Rid of Me as a double album, consisting of the studio album on one disc and the demo versions on another. However, considering that Rid of Me was to be her major label debut, a double album ended up being a move that neither Harvey nor Island wanted to make.” She ended up releasing 4-Track Demos as a stand-alone, just after her band that recorded Rid of Me disbanded, to show another side of several of the tracks. She also includes six previously un-released songs, ones that do not appear on Rid of Me: “Reeling,” which is one of my favorites on this album, “Driving,” “Hardly Wait,” “Easy,” “M-Bike” and “Goodnight.” I really love the demo’d versions of some tracks that appear, much much more produced, on Rid of Me including the absolutely hooked “Hook,” the absolutely crazed demo version of the single “50ft Queenie” (the Rid of Me version went to #27 in the UK), the powerful “Rub ‘Til it Bleeds,” bendy-bluesy “Ecstasy” and a track that out-noise-rocks bands like Sonic Youth, “Snake.”