PJ Harvey - "Let England Shake"

Given enough time and a long enough discography, most songwriting musicians get around to politics as subject matter. That is where PJ Harvey finds herself on Let England Shake: dabbling in politics. It was a natural move. After nearly two decades of songs exploring sexual politics, it must be liberating for her exploring politics from another angle.

Recorded over five weeks at a church in Dorset, England, the 12 songs that comprise Let England Shake are the result of an incredibly long incubation period, an apt metaphor for Harvey who reinvents herself with each studio album. Some of the material dates back to the sessions for her seventh: Chalk. The new material required a new way of singing she has told interviewers. The end result is her most rewarding since Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, her critically acclaimed New York City album from way back in 2000, which has made several impressive best of lists , including Rolling Stone’s 50 Essential “Women In Rock” Albums and NME’s greatest albums of the decade that just ended.

So this is not a reactionary piece of work. Harvey is not reacting to recent political events in England such as the election of David Cameron (Conservative) over Gordon Brown (Labour). The politics engaged on Let England Shake are as old as dear Blighty itself and should ensure Harvey’s eighth a long shelf life. She says it was influenced by the poetry of Harold Pinter and T. S. Eliot, the artwork of certain Spaniards, and the music of The Doors, The Pogues, and The Velvet Underground. I don’t really hear those musical influences but that only attests to the originality of the music on Let England Shake: it’s shaken off the influences. (The songs more strongly evoke the sensibility of Jethro Tull and Renaissance without sounding like those bands either.) More obvious are the ruminations on the history of conflict that Harvey says has interested her of late. The lyrics often reflect on battle and you’ll find references to James Walker and Anzac trenches strewn throughout.

Finally ready to record, Harvey rounded up Mick Harvey and John Parish as usual to support her and Flood did the mixing. Most tracks were recorded live in the Dorset church over a five week period in April-May 2010. Cat Stevens dropped by to take the booklet’s photos. French drummer Jean-Marc Butty’s contributions were added during post-production. While not the fans’ favorite drummer behind Harvey, he goes way back in the Harvey discography having contributed to Harvey’s third: To Bring You My Love.

I could quibble that the third track ‘The Glorious Land’ is a better lead track with its fluttering, trumpet-like instrumentation than the title track but it’s a strong collection no matter how it’s sequenced. Chalk’s featured instrument for Harvey – the piano – has yielded to the saxophone and autoharp and she does take chances with her singing throughout. One of the best tracks – ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ – was wisely chosen as the single. Easily one of the best three songs on this collection, it’s a clever arrangement with the chorus’ cadences bringing back memories of ‘Surfing Bird’ before giving way to a line from Eddie Cochran’s ‘Summertime Blues’. And for fans who have stuck by her over, a song such as ‘The Last Living Rose’ sounds as if it could come from any of Harvey’s previous albums.

Let England Shake concludes on an odd note. ‘The Colour of the Earth relegates Harvey to being a backing vocalist on her own album as she lets Butty step behind the lead vocalist’s microphone. It’s a ballsy move with a questionable pay-off. Intellectually I get it: the song is about World War I’s Gallipoli campaign and permitting Butty to carry the song makes sense: the lyrics about a fallen comrade in circa 1915 are more suitable for a male vocalist. Compounding the equation, having a Frenchman sing is apropos given the fact that the Gallipoli campaign was a combined British and French campaign. Emotionally, however, it is an unsatisfying move. On Harvey’s album, you want her singing the last song on an otherwise satisfying album.