PJ Harvey's album Let England Shake was the recipient of the presitigious 2011 Mercury Prize, given annually to the British album of the year. This marked the second time she had won the award, a feat not accomplished previously. With no real familiarity with PJ Harvey other than hearing "Down By the Water" on the radio in high school -- a song I didn't particularly like -- I decided to check out the album.
The record takes on some heavy subjects, namely, nationalism and war. This is not a party record. It's a topical minefield of sorts (no pun intended) that Harvey navigates on Let England Shake, and to her credit, she takes each topic head on and manages to do so without sounding trite, overly simplistic, naive or even political. Her mission is to simply attempt to share the human experience of war and her own experience as a native of England. Rather than giving us a bloated or proseltyzing anti-war anthem in the vein of some of Neil Young's recent work, Harvey shares her poetic research and experience with mezmerizing, beautiful and often unsettling results; Harvey has a story to tell but allows the listener to arrive at their own conclusions.
An additional triumph of Let England Shake is that it manages to evoke feelings of both melancholy and joy silmultaneously. Much of the music has a joyful, almost child-like quality to it, with melodies that could easily find themselves in a nursery rhyme. The lyrics, however, are much darker and offer a stark contrast to the simple exhuberance of the music. This is true of several tracks, but most apparent on album closer, "The Colour of Earth," a disarmingly simple song that packs a heavy dose of devestation in each line:
Louis was my dearest friend/fighting in the Anzac trench/ Louis ran forward from the line/and I never saw him again./Later in the dark/I thought I heard Louis' voice/calling for his Mother, then me/but I couldn't get to him/He's still on that hill/20 years on that hill/nothing more than a pile of bones/but I think of him still/If I was asked I'd tell/the colour of the earth that day;/it was dull and browny red/"the colour of blood" I'd say.
I found the short films shot by filmmaker Seamus Murphy to accompany each song to be particularly affecting. I've included my favorite, "On Battleship Hill," below, but each film is well worth the viewing (do yourself a favor and watch them).
If you are the type that enjoys the DVD film commentary from the director as much if not more than the film itself, the below video is for you. Harvey gives an inside look into her unique creative process for Let England Shake. I found her to be suprisingly soft-spoken, thougtful and articulate. After hearing the record, I guess I should have known better.
