Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| About.com | |
| Allmusic | |
| Robert Christgau | A- |
| Entertainment Weekly | A+ |
| NME | (9/10) |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | Favorable |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
Upon its release, Dry received positive critical acclaim. Former Village Voice editor and Pazz & Jop journalist Robert Christgau described the album as an "essential feminist distinction between egoist bullroar and honest irrational outpouring--and of course by her postrockist guitar, where she starts to reinvent her instrument the way grrrl-punks reinvent their form," rating the album an A-. According to Variety, the album was “not so much stripped-down rock as it is flayed-alive rock”. MTV described it as "a dark, twisted, arresting work which sounds both rubbed red raw and invigorating", while the NME praised it as "a crossover point possessing natural songwriting and scorching guitar noise" in its 9/10 review. Around the time of the album’s release, Harvey attracted some controversy for posing topless, with her back to the camera and baring an unshaven armpit, on the cover of NME. Received as well in the States as the UK, the album prompted Rolling Stone magazine to name the then-22-year-old Harvey the year's Best Songwriter and Best New Female Singer. In spite of the acclaim, "Sheela-Na-Gig" was the only single to chart in the US, at #9 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Read more about this topic: Dry (album)
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