During her first performance since the Uh Huh Her tour at the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts on 26 May 2006, Harvey revealed that her next studio album would be almost entirely piano-based. Following the October release of The Peel Sessions 1991–2004 , a compilation of songs recorded from 1991 to 2000 during her radio sessions with John Peel, she began recording her seventh studio album White Chalk in November, together with Flood , John Parish and Eric Drew Feldman and drummer Jim White in a studio in West London. White Chalk was released in September 2007 and marked a radical departure from her usual alternative rock style, consisting mainly of piano ballads. The album received favourable reviews, its style being described by one critic as containing “pseudo-Victorian elements—drama, restraint, and antiquated instruments and sounds.” Harvey herself said of the album: “when I listen to the record I feel in a different universe, really, and I’m not sure whether it’s in the past or in the future. The record confuses me, that’s what I like—it doesn’t feel of this time right now, but I’m not sure whether it’s 100 years ago or 100 years in the future”, summing up the album’s sound as “really weird.” During the tour for the album Harvey performed without a backing band, and also began performing on an autoharp , which continues to be her primary instrument after guitar and has influenced her material since White Chalk .
Revealed next album would be piano-based
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