Welcome back to Record of the Week. We're through the first couple months of the year already and shit ain't slowin' down. Hopefully you're focusing on the things that affect you directly as well as the things you can control. This first weekend of March, the Randomizer gives us PJ Harvey's 2011 masterpiece, Let England Shake. During the lockdown years, her entire catalog was reissued a few years ago, along with demos from each era, capping off with a 6LP box set of b-sides. I ended up grabbing everything as it came out. It was something that helped keep me going in those times. For this post, I'll be spinning this 2022 reissue of Let England Shake.
This album, to me, put PJ Harvey on another level. In the 90s, she was well regard. Then in 2000 she put out Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, and THAT album pushed her up in a big way and she won the Mercury Prize for it (relevant in a moment). She continued her ascendancy, I'm just gonna skip to this album. Basically, PJ Harvey was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize again, this time for Let England Shake, and won, making her the only artist to have won it twice. That's a big deal.
Let England Shake is, well, I don't want to say "a departure" because White Chalk preceded it and THAT was a departure (PS I'm not counting the albums she did with John Parish, those are different projects to me). Piano songs that sound like they're being sung in a haunted castle by the ghost of a Victorian woman who was murdered by her robber-baron husband (or something). However, that goes to show you the lengths she goes in order to achieve her artistic vision. This chick is constantly going further out there and she simply does not give a fuck if she sells one record or a million.
Let England Shake, to me, feels very personal and broad at the same time. It's about war and country. It's about patriotism and how people up and down the scale are affected by politics. It's a beautiful and bold album. Very recommended, but I don't think I'd recommended it as a starting point if you're interested in her at this point. I'd say either start at the beginning with Dry (1992) OR start with aforementioned Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000). I think it's better to hear the progression of her music from Dry. She is just so fucking cool.
I saw her on this tour at Primavera (my first Primavera!) and it was incredible (maybe my third or fourth time seeing her at that point). She looked so regal singing these songs. What a fucking privilege it is to live in the same timeline as her, but I'm just some guy singing her praises. And honestly, I do think she gets overlooked by the general public, but she's out here following her own north star, she has her fans and I'd guess she's okay with that. Go listen to PJ Harvey.