In my opinion, this is not about suicide at all. Someone has already said that it would actually be pretty weird to start an album with a song about death. "Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea" is a pretty energetic, vitalistic album indeed. I think the gun/pistol works more as some kind of metaphor: she wants danger and she's ready to handle it, so she wants "a gun", a weapon, something that will help her realise her fantasy of risk and escape. If you think about it, in the outro for "Good Fortune" she sings: "So I take my good fortune / And I fantasize of our leaving / Like some modern day gypsy landslide / Like some modern day Bonnie and Clyde / on the run again". There is this idea of being "on the run", in an almost-glamorous way, the Bonnie & Clyde reference is more than obvious, but one can also think of Steve McQueen and AliMacGraw in "The Getaway". In conclusion, I think PJ Harvey is singing about the questionable "pleasures" of violence and crime as sources of power, enjoyment and freedom.
In my opinion, this is not about suicide at all. Someone has already said that it would actually be pretty weird to start an album with a song about death. "Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea" is a pretty energetic, vitalistic album indeed. I think the gun/pistol works more as some kind of metaphor: she wants danger and she's ready to handle it, so she wants "a gun", a weapon, something that will help her realise her fantasy of risk and escape. If you think about it, in the outro for "Good Fortune" she sings: "So I take my good fortune / And I fantasize of our leaving / Like some modern day gypsy landslide / Like some modern day Bonnie and Clyde / on the run again". There is this idea of being "on the run", in an almost-glamorous way, the Bonnie & Clyde reference is more than obvious, but one can also think of Steve McQueen and AliMacGraw in "The Getaway". In conclusion, I think PJ Harvey is singing about the questionable "pleasures" of violence and crime as sources of power, enjoyment and freedom.