Review Summary: PJ Harvey puts America on notice
PJ Harvey makes no attempt to hide her political motives. It’s a facet of her music that has recently helped define both PJ Harvey as an artist as well as the people who listen to her music.
Let England Shake was ripe with unrest, evolving into one of the decade’s key protest albums. Her voice seems like it was crafted specifically with this in mind; she has the range to express both hopeful resolve as well as to fiercely lament the atrocities of modern governments and their citizens. She’s almost like a vigilante, hunting down deception and corruption to expose it. In 2011, England was on the chopping block. As it turns out, America isn’t safe from her keen eye either.
The Hope Six Demolition Project has been dubbed “Let America Shake” by some critics, and at least in terms of the lyrical content, it’s an apt comparison. Harvey bemoans the state of Anocostia, a D.C. neighborhood whose schools she refers to as “a shithole” and whose drug-riddled populace she regards as “zombies.” On the jolting, industrial-backed ‘The Ministry of Defence’, she cries out “this is how the world will end” while backed by an ominous crowd-chant. Yes,
The Hope Six Demolition Project is very much its predecessor’s sibling, and the lyrics – most of which began as poetry – resonate with the same sort of calm yet menacing warnings to a nation blinded by all things less important than the actual truth. At its best, some of the realizations made will send a chill up your spine.
Where Harvey’s ninth album deviates is its
musical approach. Whereas recent outings have shown her wailing away in stunning and haunting falsetto,
The Hope Six Demolition Project sounds far more grounded. If
Let England Shake was an atmospheric glide through the skies of the U.K., then this was crafted with callused hands, in the heartland of the U.S. Just listen to ‘The Wheel’, a track that stomps and claps its way into every corner of your mind while gathering its momentum from a drudging background, all of which is highlighted by eerie, high-pitched electric guitars. The whole thing feels very
to-the-bone, introducing a physical element that seems to have usurped the lighter, moodier aura of PJ’s more recent offerings. There’s an authentic sense of craftsmanship here, such that even in its (at times) bare and frame-like posture, it still feels full of depth and certainty.
Fans and critics will most likely listen to
Hope Six and point out that it is not as haunting, memorable, or immediate as some of her other works. All of this is true, and there’s no sense in trying to develop an argument for this being her best. However, there’s something to be said for fashioning intriguingly different music more than twenty years into a career. To be able to
still spark curiosity around her artistic direction, all the while raising serious political and social questions, is nothing short of admirable - and it’s a feat that is never accomplished by settling into a groove.
The Hope Six Demolition Project is just like PJ Harvey – always thinking, always moving. Even if it may capture her in a moment between masterpieces, it doesn’t make her music any less enthralling or her cause any less compelling.
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