Let England Shake
The Age
Friday February 11, 2011
Let England Shake PJ Harvey (Universal) RATING: 4/5ON THE outstanding new album from PJ Harvey, Let England Shake, the singer-songwriter once more charts the peculiar course of love and the losses sown in its wake. This time, however, the thwarted romance is between an individual and their country the record has a feel for the allure of patriotism and the wars that can be fought in defence of a flag; the numerous references to spilt blood are literal. Politicians speak and soldiers fall like "lumps of meat" on The Words that Maketh Murder and the songs track back and forth across time, suggesting history reveals a sad inevitability. Several pieces explicitly reference the costly folly of the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, most notably the furiously see-sawing All & Everyone, while The Glorious Land might be a letter from contemporary Iraq. Crucially, Harvey matches her solemn words to a new sound, a surprisingly free-flowing folk mix of autoharp, electric guitar, sparse percussion and stray woodwind. It all makes for Harvey's most immediate album since 2000's Stories From theCity ... and easily one of the best. Long live the Queen!
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