Let England Shake by PJ Harvey
LABEL: Vagrant

Although each of PJ Harvey’s albums has a special place with different followings of listeners, this album was one I found immediately accessible. The surprising paucity of Harvey’s vocals, compared to previous albums, is an aspect that surprisingly contributes to its striking effect. The album speaks to the heavy, sordid topic of war, yet the songs are lyrically poignant and haunting. There is enough lilting melody to carry you away into proclivity with one listen. With this record, Harvey has succeeded in making something usually unpalatable immediately accessible to a wide variety of listeners. That it won her the second Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize in her career is no surprise. Even more of an important award to me: it has, also, won a place in my (evolving) Top Albums List for 2011.

The first song, “The Last Living Rose,” catches you immediately with thumping drum and plucky guitar strumming under Harvey’s trademark on-the-edge vocals. The addition of a tambourine and a trombone add an eccentric, eloquent twist. The album’s fourth track, “The Words That Maketh Murder,” gradually climbs to chill-inducing heights when Harvey, together with the background vocalists John Parish and Mick Harvey, sing “What if I take my problem to the United Nations.” The threat of such a statement seems hollow in light of recent history, and effectively leaves me shaking my head in commiseration with the irony.

  PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder by Vagrant Records

“The Glorious Land” is the first song I have ever heard successfully loop a car horn throughout its length. Harvey’s voice in this higher pitch, coupled with a chorus of background singing, embodies almost childlike lamentation. “All & Everyone” is a simple, steadily driving song, which elegantly arcs into gentle lilting melodies and is striking in its ability to stop you cold mid-listen. The lyrics, “Death is now/and now/and now” could apply ultimately to the very human condition, and not merely the theme of the album.

“Battleship Hill” creates suspense through the strong steady beat of a drum and ambient guitar under Harvey’s almost falsetto vocals, which fly out over the terse landscape of the song like a carrier bird with an important message to deliver. In “England,” over the disconcerting sampling of her own vocal layers, Harvey sings in a piercing climax, “to you England I cling/undaunted/never failing love for you/England...”

  Written On The Forehead by pjharvey

“In the Dark Places” hails back to early Harvey, with minimal instrumentation and a striking melody that grips you right off, making you want more. Her slightly raspy vocals stop you in your tracks, the beat moving you to motion at the same time. Harvey edges up to a clincher ending where the music smoothes out and she sings in a melody that will sear your nerves right up through your skin, “so our young men/hid with guns/in the dirt/and in the dark places/not one man/not one woman has/revealed the secrets of this world.”

This affecting album moves steadily throughout from start to finish. There are many songs I want to play again and again — instead of throwing one or two deal makers to tie together an otherwise sub par album as many modern artists are compelled to do, Harvey proves she’s on top of her game, using only the best architecture for building an entire concept album.


REVIEWED BY KYRSTEN BEAN
KRYSTEN’S FAVORITE TRACKS “The Last Living Rose” • “All & Everyone” • “In the Dark Places”
Kyrsten Bean is a freelance writer, a musician and a photographer.