PJ Harvey? Old news. We’ve heard it all and the verdict is: consistently hit or miss. Stories From the City, Stories from the Sea was decent and her last full length, Uh Huh Her, was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. But, all told, I prefer her less structured years. Recently I’ve been re-listening to Harvey’s 1993 “album” 4 Track Demos and I find myself wondering why I ever veered away from it.

Full of material used in future endeavors, 4 Track Demos is Harvey at her simplest and most powerful. Many of the compositions here ended up on Rid of Me in much flabbier and blunted form. 4 Track Demos is raw power—the embodiment of Harvey’s unfiltered anger.

The opening track “Rid of Me” starts off slow and builds to a chorus of spit and bile. A simple song about a woman who is being dumped, it swerves back and forth between desperation and rage. Not too far apart, you say? Harvey makes the distinction, singing “I beg you my darling / Don’t leave me I’m hurting” and then “Till you say don’t you wish you never met her!”

Another track that hits: “Hardly Wait.” A melancholy and oddly sexual song that is about as self-deprecating as Harvey has ever been, the guitar riff that drives it is beautiful. Dragged down by the undertow, Harvey croons “In my glass coffin I am waiting,” as the song dwindles to a close.

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