We already knew that Polly Jean Harvey does not like to repeat the sounds and styles of previous albums, and as a result, none of her eight records sound alike.
With her newest release Let England Shake, PJ Harvey reinvents herself yet again.
The 41-year-old eccentric British singer, who is also a very gifted songwriter and musician, has not released anything new since 2007.
Her last album, White Chalk, was not such a success, judged by many critics as isolated and even depressing.
The artist is quite famous for her amazing, flexible voice; the depth and quality of her voice gives her albums an extra kick, and match her troubled personality.
With her newest release, she comes back with an hour-long album, recorded in a 19th century church in Dorset, England — her hometown region — on a cliff-top overlooking the sea.
Let England Shake will surely delight romantic, melancholic minds, as the atmosphere of the album pervades the album.
PJ Harvey’s vibrant pop is original and captivating, and almost all the songs are poignant and convey deep emotional thought.
Not to mention the long-lasting and very brilliant collaboration of Flood, John Parish and Mick Harvey. Radio singles “Let England Shake” and “The Last Living Rose” are definitely the highlights of the album.
Their acoustics are easy to embrace and the immense vocals make even the weakest song a revelation.
PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake is the kind of committed album that invites listeners on a musical journey and tells a story.
As the singer said on her website “Let England Shake evokes the troubled spirit of 2010, but it also casts its mind back to times and places from our long collective memory.”
PJ Harvey obsesses over the depiction of England at its darkest moments.
She paints with a certain crudity the horrors of the Great War that caused the country national trauma.
“I’ve seen flies swarming everyone / soldiers fall like lumps of meat . . . flesh quivering in the heat,” she sings as an introduction in “The Words that Maketh Murder.”
And the best is that, despite all of the blood and violence on display, the whole thing sounds really beautifully poetic.
For Let England Shake, PJ Harvey has adopted a pastoral icon for the album’s cover artwork.
The album is nonetheless modern and not at all trapped in the nostalgia of the past.
In keeping with such imaginative intentions, its music has a rare breadth and emotional power.
