Album review: PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
If there’s one thing you can guarantee about a PJ Harvey album it’s that it won’t sound like anything you’ve heard before. Full of surprises, so far in her 20-odd year career she’s recorded 7 albums and though her voice is instantly recognisable and the records might have a common thread in that they’re generally intensely personal, they sound remarkably different. Now she’s back with the highly anticipated ‘Let England Shake’ and with the help of past collaborators, including Flood, John Parish, and Mick Harvey, she has again managed to produce something the likes of which you have never heard. This time while the songs are still intense, it wouldn’t be PJ Harvey if they weren’t, she has taken a departure from emotional and introspective song writing in favour of reflecting the turmoil and futility of conflict she sees around her in the World and in particular England. Recorded in a 19th Century church in Dorset, on a cliff-top overlooking the sea, Harvey and the gang’s decision to hide themselves away and let the creative juices flow has paid huge dividends. The album segues effortlessly from current single ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ which, with its male backing vocals, sounds like it was written for a musical, to the sparse and almost heartbreaking ‘England’ where Harvey sings of the love and disappointment she feels for her country;’ … the country that I love / England / you leave a taste / a bitter one’. Interestingly the songs here don’t necessarily work so well in isolation but in the context of the album they make absolute sense. As such it’s difficult to pick highlights, but as a whole it’s a stunning piece of work and though I’ve probably played it through 20 times already it’s fully kept my attention from start to finish every time, and that’s a rare achievement. As I said at the beginning Harvey is full of surprises and she’s managed to pull another out of the bag; ‘Let England Shake’ is certainly her most accessible album and quite possibly her best yet. 9/10
No related posts.
