"A Perfect Day Elise" is a song by English

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

musician

PJ Harvey Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English singer-songwriter. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined local band Automat ...

. Written solely by Harvey, the song was released as the lead single from her fourth studio album, '' Is This Desire?'' (1998), in September 1998 through

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

. The song became Harvey's highest charting single in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 25. It also charted at number 33 on the US Billboard ''

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

'', becoming one of Harvey’s biggest US hits. An accompanying music video for the song, directed by Harvey's frequent collaborator Maria Mochnacz, was released in 1998.

Background and reception

Similar to the other songs on ''Is This Desire?'', "A Perfect Day Elise" narrates individual portrait of a female protagonist, named "Elise" in the song. According to the authors of ''Disruptive Divas: Feminism, Identity and Popular Music'', Lori Burns and Melisse Lafrance, Harvey's vocals are recorded "with the effect that she is enclosed, while her voice is also layered with an

octave doubling In music theory, voicing refers to two closely related concepts: # How a musician or group distributes, or spaces, notes and chords on one or more instruments # The simultaneous vertical placement of notes in relation to each other; this rela ...

." On his review for ''Is This Desire?'', James Oldham of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' wrote that the song "will provide you with some idea of what's to come, but even its rumbling momentum and overloaded percussion is no preparation for the brutality of some of the material here." on his review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'',

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

described the song as "the uptempo single" off the album; nevertheless he also stated that the song "rocks to nowhere". Paul Verna of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' compared the song to other contemporary U2 tracks that were also produced by

Flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

Track listing

UK CD single (CID 718) # "A Perfect Day Elise" – 3:12 # "The Northwood" – 1:57 # "Sweeter Than Anything" – 3:11 UK CD single (CIDX 718) # "A Perfect Day Elise" – 3:12 # "The Bay" – 3:14 # "Instrumental #3" – 1:02 UK 7" # "A Perfect Day Elise" – 3:08 # "Sweeter Than Anything" – 3:11 # "Instrumental #3" – 1:03 US promo CD # "A Perfect Day Elise (Single Version)" – 3:03 # "A Perfect Day Elise (Research Hook)" – 0:10

Charts

References

External links

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PJ Harvey - "A Perfect Day Elise" official music video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perfect Day Elise 1998 singles PJ Harvey songs Island Records singles Song recordings produced by Flood (producer) Songs written by PJ Harvey 1998 songs