PJ Harvey
Let England Shake

Even though the album was released on February 14, 2011, either due to lack of time or because I hadn't yet come to fully realize what was blasting out of my computer speakers, only now have I decided to review it after a thorough listen. 

Well. That Polly Jean Harvey  was an artist was already known, but that Polly Jean Harvey  was an Artist is still not clear to many. But after this album, I am increasingly convinced of my thesis. Those who don't know Pj Harvey might not notice much of a difference from her previous works, but even for first-time listeners, the album will be enjoyable and indeed, it will spark a lot of curiosity.

"Let England Shake”, made of straightforward rock and essential folk and recorded in Dorset in a nineteenth-century church, was born after three years of meticulous lyric writing and five of study and addresses important themes, chiefly war. The goal? To shake (shake) consciences, to rouse her England, protagonist from the title of the work, the colonial England and the one involved in the intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also that of the 1915 Gallipoli battle where, together with the French, the conquest of Constantinople failed. 

Musically speaking, I would define the whole as a single track that reaches its peak and then slowly fades away, a Gaussian curve.

When I start listening, I realize right away that I'm facing a new musical approach, music becomes a denunciation, straightforward pieces, devoid of well-defined melodic harmonies, yet with driving rhythms, guitars with blaring chorus, use of horns, the choice of STRICTLY male choirs, psychedelic in some parts. The album is so new, so fresh, and out of the box.

The first track named after the album is spectacular, mentioning a certain Bobby who could refer to Bobby Sands, a Northern Irish activist who died during a hunger strike in 1981 at Long Kesh prison, known as Maze, near Lisburn, or any soldier as in England it has been customary to call policemen by this nickname.

It continues with The Last Living Rose  where war drums are heard from the very first seconds of the track, the most melodically close to rock, I would say. It's the start of the journey through time.

The Glorious Land is the best track in my opinion, which encapsulates a bit of all the album's sounds, a melancholic and visionary vein in the initial loop with guitars rich in modulations and off-key trumpet sounds as a war anthem.

Particular attention to the text, the striking phrase is:

'What is the glorious fruit of our land?

Its fruit is deformed children

What is the glorious fruit of our land?

Its fruit is orphaned children'.

Let's move on to The Words That Maketh Murder the folk ballad of the album. Reaching the psychedelic All And Everyone, with On Battleship Hill  we approach the peak mentioned above. England  is pure patriotism, the vocals and moans are fantastic, and the arrangement with the acoustic is passionate, the post-modern national anthem of much-loved England.

And here it finally comes, In The Dark Places, to not disappoint the most conservative fans, the old-fashioned, very positive track.

In Bitter Branches similarities emerge between the harsh branches of bare trees and the wives of soldiers who are forced to say goodbye to their loved ones, a short but intense piece. Now it is with Hanging In The Wire we approach the end of the journey, the war ends and the spectacle that presents itself before the eyes of man is disconcerting, mentioning The White Cliffs OF Dover (an old song by Vera Lynn recorded in 1942, very popular during World War II).

Written On The Forehead: it's the end. The war rages in the city, and fleeing seems the only possible solution. Arrangements and sounds worthy of a piece by Sigur Rós. A magnificent closing, I would say!!!

The last track, The Colour Of The Earth, is astonishing. Nominated for the 2011 Music Awards in the Best Lyric category, it centers on Louis, who fought in the AZNAC trenches. [ANZAC is the acronym by which the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps is known. It was part of the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force during World War I.]

In 40 min and  08 s  Pj Harvey demonstrates how a musician can manage to conceive music by putting themselves to the test, researching, and, above all, recreating atmospheres whose existence we sometimes ignore.

On September 6, the 20th Mercury Prize, the prestigious award given by the English music industry for the best album of the year, was awarded.

PJ Harvey won with Let England Shake .