In PJ Harvey’s mind, an England shaken to its core would see the big black crows being stunned and disturbed enough to flee their nests and fly away in blind panic. That alone is the visual representation on the cover of this album and it’s an image that Harvey’s taken to her stage show, appearing in a sort of ruffled crows feather head dress standing alone and separate from her band mates, as if to emphasise the observation role she now finds herself in. This is just one of the many finer attentions to detail you’ll find on this concept record, a suite of songs in some ways similar in category to Neil Young’s ‘Living With War’ in that it focuses exclusively in the modern day military conflicts our country finds itself involved in. Rather than protest however, these songs are more of the perspective of a reporter and a brutally honest scribe at that. This songwriter doesn’t just leave her commentary at the plain facts, she also lays bare the horrific impression these scenes have left upon her. Neil Young tried to revive the tradition of protest music but PJ Harvey appears to have learnt that those 1960s topical tunesmiths were doomed to failure, at least in terms of how much difference their songs actually made in the grand scheme of things. That doesn’t stop her from occasionally pointing the finger though; take ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ questioning the lack of support for those suffering from traumatic stress with its “what if I take my problem to the United Nations?” The one other great thing about this PJ Harvey album though it has to be noted is that, like on ‘Stories From The City Stories From The Sea’, when she has a real lyrical message or theme to put across she really pulls her best tunes out of the bag. ‘Let England Shake’ is a record with an abundance of important messages wrapped up in music that you’ll want to keep on coming back to. There’s some strong competition for the title, but this might just edge it as her masterpiece.Sunday 18 December 2011
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.15 - P.J. HARVEY, Let England Shake
In PJ Harvey’s mind, an England shaken to its core would see the big black crows being stunned and disturbed enough to flee their nests and fly away in blind panic. That alone is the visual representation on the cover of this album and it’s an image that Harvey’s taken to her stage show, appearing in a sort of ruffled crows feather head dress standing alone and separate from her band mates, as if to emphasise the observation role she now finds herself in. This is just one of the many finer attentions to detail you’ll find on this concept record, a suite of songs in some ways similar in category to Neil Young’s ‘Living With War’ in that it focuses exclusively in the modern day military conflicts our country finds itself involved in. Rather than protest however, these songs are more of the perspective of a reporter and a brutally honest scribe at that. This songwriter doesn’t just leave her commentary at the plain facts, she also lays bare the horrific impression these scenes have left upon her. Neil Young tried to revive the tradition of protest music but PJ Harvey appears to have learnt that those 1960s topical tunesmiths were doomed to failure, at least in terms of how much difference their songs actually made in the grand scheme of things. That doesn’t stop her from occasionally pointing the finger though; take ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ questioning the lack of support for those suffering from traumatic stress with its “what if I take my problem to the United Nations?” The one other great thing about this PJ Harvey album though it has to be noted is that, like on ‘Stories From The City Stories From The Sea’, when she has a real lyrical message or theme to put across she really pulls her best tunes out of the bag. ‘Let England Shake’ is a record with an abundance of important messages wrapped up in music that you’ll want to keep on coming back to. There’s some strong competition for the title, but this might just edge it as her masterpiece.
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