PJ Harvey
Let England Shake

You know that by now, I come down from the mountain just two or three times a year. For Polly's new album, obviously, it's an obligation. And the news isn't so much that I'm trying to put together some decent thoughts, but that her new record seems pretty good to me. Actually, damn good.

Naturally, she highly disregarded my modest musings, she continued along the intimate path undertaken in recent years, but moved and searched for a new center. Oh dear, when I read that she was writing the new songs with the autoharp, I was already in a cosmic depression. In the end, however, it resulted in a guitar record. Certainly not the ones I'd want, not the ones recorded by Albini, but at least combat-folk. She mentioned the Pogues as one of her early influences, but I don't see the latest Clash or Joe Strummer as distant relatives. And not just because of that "Let England Shake" which cannot help but refer to "This Is England".

Yes, a very English record, not only for the mood (it was recorded in a church in Dorset), but especially for the lyrics, which she says were written well before finding the melodies. A raw and ruthless analysis of the British Empire, starting from the battle of Gallipoli, a metaphor for today's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (The usual digression, annoyingly rhetorical: but here in Italy, without returning to the era of singer-songwriters, is it not possible for some singer to deal with themes a little higher than those offered by the current squalor?).

Consequently, a record immediately adored by the press in Albion (ranging from NME's ten out of ten to the Guardian's five stars), and yet for us Italians it will not be fully understandable, beyond our knowledge of the language. But, I really don't think that, in this case, one can dispense with a careful analysis of the lyrics, as political as they haven't been in a while, drenched in blood, flesh, and bodies going to die.

The musical part, as mentioned, is not exactly my "cup of tea" (ultimately there is only one track that completely wins me over, "Bitter Branches"), but when faced with an artist of Mrs. Harvey's caliber, one must evaluate the work in its entirety, certainly not in the details. And the work is evident in the composition, the arrangements, the recording. In the usual company of trusted friends: John Parish, Mick Harvey, Flood on production. Ultimately, not remaining still past the age of forty, but still eager to explore the musical world in all its facets.

And all in all, it's pleasing that after Brian Eno's idiocy about Anna Calvi ("The biggest thing since Patti Smith", as if Polly never existed), the old lioness returns to roar with all her grace and ferocity. In my opinion, a clear 2-0, and we'll see each other again in a couple of seasons.