One Day Holiday - Along Came Polly

*One Day Holiday is an unscheduled, published-whenever-I-feel-like-it column for Hafeez, a resident blogger for this blog. This column are centered mostly around music and random stuff that ranges from the coherent to the absolutely absurd.

Just a few days ago, I opened my long forgotten CD case (or was it called wallet?) which at one point in my life was utterly proud of it. It can hold an amazing number of 20 CDs. Sounds just as amazing as like having your romantic candlelight dinner in Pantai Dalam. Amazing it is because in those days, mp3 is still relatively a new phenomenon and buying CDs are still the way to go, for most people. In those days, my CDs are my most expensive possession.

At the time (yes, we're still in flsahback mode), 20 CDs for me was a HUGE collection. I had, among other, such rare, exotic, unknown, and possibly unwanted crap CDs from bands like A Silver Mt. Zion, Stereolab (their difficult second album), Flying Saucer Attack, and Hawkwind. The latter two I bought at a used CD shop for roughly about RM20 a piece. Which should cement its status as an unwanted crap. Anywhere I go, if possible, I would brag about how genuinely awesome my CD collection was to my mere handful collection of people whom I know who actually listens to what I say. Then iPod came about and the CD wallet was nowhere to be seen near me again for the next gajillion years. CD collection is then, now, as sexy a collection as Adibah Noor in two piece besides Marion Caunter in a rice sack.

Of the 20 CDs that is in the wallet, one CD though grabbed my attention that fateful night. It was PJ Harvey's Uh Huh Her. It was her follow-up to the amazing Stories album, released somewhere in early 21st century. I could not recall when was the last time I listened to the album, and I believe it is a very grave injustice for me for ignoring this album for such a long time because, running out of superlatives now, it simply kicks ass. When the album Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea made it into Tone's list of best album of the year 2002 (if I'm not mistaken), I was sold. I bought the album, listened to it a couple of time, and loved it very much. After that Tone was pulled out of print. Their untimely death was as surprising as a light drizzle in the afternoon.

Uh Huh Her, released in 2003, was nothing like Stories. It was raw, totally stripped bare to the bone, vicious, angry, savage, fighty, shouty, bitchy, and a good dose of awesomeness. If a men-hating feminist group somewhere wanted a soundtrack to go with their daily street protests, this is it. Just a few days ago an Iranian scientist announced that he had successfully created an artificial sperm from bit parts found in a dumpster behind the shoplots in Haarlem. Two days later, newspaper all over the world ran articles debating whether humanity ever need men again. Well, this is album is the soundtrack for that moment. (And I'm saying this without really paying attention to what Polly Jean Harvey was actually singing)

The other reason why I'm highlighting a backdated album in this column today is because it kind of makes some sense with Sonic Youth's recently released The Eternal. The both mentioned album was made for one very simple but specific purpose: to kick someone in their behind real hard, piss in their face, and say "fuck you douchebag". In these times of women's advancement in just about every field available in life, it is probably about time (and it is the best of times) for women to kick all men in their nether region, piss in their face, and say: humanity does not need your type anymore.

That is my perfect rendition of the word 'kickass awesome'.