PJ Harvey: Let England Shake

It can be argued that over the course of her 20+ year career

PJ Harvey has yet to make a bad album. Each release remains unique, challenging, provocative, and ultimately rewarding. Quite honestly, the same can't be said for other vanguards such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, REM, Sonic Youth, Tom Waits, Neil Young, etc., who have all had long careers as innovative artists yet have had their share of missteps along the way. Peers like Nick Cave have been equally consistent, yet I would still consider a bit more underground than PJ Harvey, who remarkably has remained a major-label artist throughout here career on the Universal-owned Island Records. But even the most ardent PJ Harvey fans may not be prepared for the startling and unsettling new album,

Let England Shake

.

Let England Shake is a meditation on war and nationalism and could be considered Harvey's most political album to date. Yet her anger and frustration with her native England, as well as the world’s predilection for violence, is not delivered with the rage and bile found on past albums. This is not the ferocious and primitive PJ Harvey of Dry & Rid of Me nor the emotionally ravaged PJ Harvey of White Chalk. The songs seem to be channeled from the hereafter in a state of post-war shell-shock, sung in a high register that feels less dogmatic than angelic.

-- Dan Wilcox, KCRW Music Host

Let England Shake will be available to stream on demand from Feb 7 through March 8, 2011. The album will be released on Tuesday February 15, 2011.

Listen to an archived performance of

PJ Harvey on Morning Becomes Eclectic, November 2, 2007.

http://www.pjharvey.net

Track listing

1. Let England Shake

2. The Last Living Rose

3. The Glorious Land

4. The Words That Maketh Murder

5. All & Everyone

6. On Battleship Hill

7. England

8. In The Dark Places

9. Bitter Branches

10. Hanging In The Wire

11. Written On The Forehead

12. The Colour Of The Earth