This Mess We're In

PJ Harvey recorded “This Mess We’re In” in March and April 2000 at Linford Manor in Milton Keynes during the sessions for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. Harvey wrote the song and sang it as a duet with Thom Yorke, with PJ Harvey, Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey producing and Victor Van Vugt mixing the album at The Fallout Shelter. Released by Island in 2000 on Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, it became one of the album’s most discussed tracks because of Yorke’s prominent guest vocal. Its nocturnal New York imagery and intimate duet structure deepened the album’s balance of romance, city life and unease. The track remains one of PJ Harvey’s best-known collaborations and a standout album cut from her Mercury Prize-winning breakthrough. Its pairing of Harvey and Yorke has kept it prominent in accounts of early-2000s alternative music crossovers.