Autumn fell and now it is time to fill the glasses with nice whiskey, sink in silent solitude and give ourselves to sweet melancholy. Let the whiskey bear a better label, and Polly Jean will take care for the mood. Surprisingly, but this time the guitar is left to rest, squeezed off by the strong emotions of PJ, and “White Chalk” draws its songs mostly with the help of the piano. Under the keys minimalistic melodies with huge potential have came out. Delicate, quiet but startlingly influencing, the eleven songs soothe the ears and at the same time bring grief as it is with a beautiful picture in dark nuances, as with a lonely grave hidden in the cozy of a tranquil scene. The piano is an unexplored territory for PJ Harvey, but she herself claims she feels creatively free when she plays on a very new instrument - that much free, that she has dedicated a song to it (”The Piano”), which by paradox is the closest to the alternative revelations of her previous records. The rest is the calmness of darkness (“Dear Darkness”) and the silence in which you find yourself (“Silence”). Soft and mellow, with a few chords on the piano, unostentatious rhythm and the predisposing singing of PJ, the songs in “White Chalk” flow from almost lullabyish tunes to 60’s folk rock (the title track and “Broken Harp”), but presented with this cynically bared voice, purposeful and compelling. The evening is getting on, the amber waves in the bottle now lick its glass walls on the level of the label, and the album unnoticeably has turned on for a second, third time… The silence, the measure of the moments of life by the clock, ghostly steps rhythmically accompany the piano while PJ sings and slightly touches the white chalk keys…