It's been a mad, bad trip on the emotional roller coaster that is Harvey fandom this last decade. There's been breakdowns, harrowing tales of grim sexual sojourns ('Rid Of Me') of weird sexual liaisons ('To Bring You My Love') and now we arrive at our happy sexual destiny, 'Good Fortune'.
An unbeatable, absolutely stone-cold classic rock ballad, 'Good Fortune' joyfully, manically wallows in Harvey's new-found sexual bliss ("I feel like some bird of paradise/My bad fortune slipping away/And I feel the innocence of a child..."). So giddy is she with the sheer joy of it all, Harvey even appears in the accompanying video skipping around London's trendy Hoxton area, dressed in black designer plunge-necked frock and straightened hair like a goth rock chick Friends character or an All Saint.
The song goes on to imagine Harvey and her lover romantically on the run ("like some modern day Bonnie & Clyde"). Now, while her sheer exuberance, touching small girl fantasies and catchy songmanship (especially the warbling vocal bits, think Lulu's "weeeeeehhhllllll" bit at the beginning of 'Shout' only better, darker, stronger) make this Single Of The Week; there's also another, unseen factor. And it's this: the unhappiness that blighted her predecessors - Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks, Patti Smith - and which makes them so tragically compelling also seems to touch Harvey's legend. There's a sense of impending doom, which accompanies this burst of happiness. Part of Harvey's appeal is in waiting for her to document the next fall, the gut-wrenching plunge that follows the high loop. Her darkside cannot be denied. Be scared.
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