Let England Shake- PJ Harvey

WAR! What is it good for? Here’s your answer...

That Polly Harvey is a strange one.

That’s not meant as a slur on her fiercely guarded personal life or anything like that, more that the creative peak she hit with her 1992 debut Dry has never really ended. From her raw post-punk beginnings through hardcore, goth, polished pop and eerie ballads, every album has been greeted with endless critical acclaim.

She also isn’t one to hang around a successful sound, so she has again swerved dramatically from the creepiness of 2007’s White Chalk in favour of a protest album. Harvey has always had literary allusions in her music, but on her eighth solo album Let England Shake it comes sharply into focus,channelling the spirit of Siegfried Sassoon’s elegant anti-war poetry.

PJ Harvey’s appearance on The Andrew Marr Show last year playing the title track on autoharp in front of Gordon Brown was a brave move that raised many eyebrows, and the album carries the same impact throughout. The conflicts she references (mostly Gallipoli- a conflict she researched in detail when writing- and the First World War) may be long confined to the history books, but it doesn’t take much to realise she’s applying them to more recent wars.

What comes across first is the power of her words: PJ Harvey has succeeded in writing dark, beautiful poetry. The Words That Maketh Murder talk of soldiers falling “like lumps of meat/Blown and shot out beyond belief/Arms and legs were in the trees”, and This Glorious Land argues that war is built into us, as “Our land is ploughed by tanks and feet”. The repeated cries of “Oh America/Oh England” in the chorus make it clear who these words are aimed at.

Despite the brutal and horrific words, this is an album filled with subtlety. It’s protest music that doesn’t rage like...well, Rage Against The Machine, the anger that is audible is bubbling under the surface, only really breaking through in the spat lyrics of Bitter Branches. Everywhere else, it’s extremely English in its reserve: it’s there, but it isn't shouted to be heard.

Let England Shake is also an album shrouded in atmosphere, thanks in part to Harvey’s discovery of the autoharp- an instrument that manages to be somehow delicate and be filled with power at the same time. There’s no need for choirs or orchestras to sound like a stampeding army: it does it on its own. The instrument is most keenly felt on the title track, as Harvey’s voice quivers softly as she sings that “England’s dancing days are done.” Elsewhere, Written On The Forehead uses soft reggae rhythms to explore the impact of war on civilians to damning effect, whilst the heartbreaking Hanging In The Wire and its quiet piano lines are filled with the ghosts of lives lost in warfare.

Credit has to go to her band too, including long-time collaborator John Parish, who help to infuse that atmosphere through the record. But really, Let England Shake stands as PJ Harvey’s masterpiece thanks to her words, which are utterly extraordinary. It’s an album that haunts, revealing itself slowly over time, as all great art should. This is one of those once-in-a-generation albums that will leave an imprint on future decades, it’s really that good. This is year zero for the future of protest music.

5/5

Best Tracks:

The Words That Maketh Murder
Let England Shake
Written On The Forehead
The Glorious Land
Hanging In The Wire