Rolling Stone (10/15/98, pp.128-129) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...A less carnally confident singer would fall flat with so much melodrama....Harvey's charismatic growl hasn't failed her yet, and she struts her stuff all over these twelve dark jewels....Most of the album is muted balladry..." Spin (11/98, pp.132-134) - 8 (out of 10) - "...There are more contempo club textures here than the blues riffs she was firing off when we met her....Even though her increasingly aquatic arrangements have the delicay of Debussy, her delivery has more to do with Chuck Berry--from her gut to your heart as fast as you can say `Maybelline'..." Entertainment Weekly (10/2/98, p.74) - "...Sure, Harvey's a romantic nihilist, but she's also a brilliant formalist, and this may be her most musically daring and fully realized effort....DESIRE seethes with hypnotic power." - Rating: A Q (11/98, p.120) - 4 stars (out of 5) - "...IS THIS DESIRE? is the most artfully truncated missives of bleakness and pain to have emerged from a jewel box or Digipack since the dawn of the CD..." The Wire (1/99, p.27) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year [1998]" Vibe (11/98, p.174) - "...Revealing the pre-millennium influence of her friend and collaborator Tricky....IS THIS DESIRE? delivers one standout classic..."