REVIEWED: Let England Shake by PJ Harvey



There was something infinitely liberating seeing raptors flying across the sky as they continue on with their journey northward, leaving their temporary makeshift nest on a small island just outside Port Dickson on a bright sunny Saturday. I could only bade a longing farewell with an amazed stare. This is perhaps the only most precious thing that I can gather from my last weekend's excursion at an event called Raptor Watch; that and apart from the delight of seeing secondary school students learning a lot about the forest, thanks to a guided trail walk by me.

I wouldn't already consider myself a 'seasoned' forest guide from my rather brief experience of doing so but my, I can already spot certain types of tree from miles away, and rather accurately. It largely goes to the shape and the surface of the tree trunk, which to any untrained eye, it all looks just the same. Not that it's a bad thing because I thought of the same thing as well before this. You'd be surprised actually to see how the forest, despite of its' uniformed color scheme, are made up of large variety of individuality, and each of them are almost not alike with one another. I'm probably splitting hair here (and to be quite honest, who gives a flying fuck about it anyway innit?) but the subtle art of subtlety is something that one must be acquainted and familiar with in order to fully appreciate something like PJ Harvey.

I've mentioned this before in regard to PJ Harvey's materials and I'll mention it again here - PJ Harvey's songs have always been, and will always be, about musical styles and notion rather than its' lyrical content. Not that they're unimportant but because one needs to really appreciate what a highly talented songwriter Ms. Polly Jean is, something else has to take a backseat, and that naturally goes to the sung words. Or was, because now that her 8th studio album is already out, entitled Let England Shake, the rule book has been rewritten.

We're not going to dwell at a much further length about what this album constitutes, were made of, and what it made us feel as the disc spins because for certain things, the lesser you knew about it, the better. Let England Shake certainly is a very political album in its' stance and its' voice, but it is not of a discontented anger, or straight-up revolt like Rage Against the Machine. It is not angry in a way, but rather pretty poetic about it - brutish honesty kind of poetic. It is not the kind that will stand in front of baton-wielding riot police in arms, but rather is more at home sitting on a rocking chair with a cup of tea and sprouting quotes of Descartes and Proust. If all these fails and you still find yourself scratching your head, let's just say it is a very subtle album. And it is the type of subtlety that you just have to pay attention to.

What we dare to say is that with the Arab region still in political turmoil and general realization and zeitgeist reaching wide acceptance, this album could possibly be the Dark Side of the Moon of the current age. Quite a statement? For such an album, it totally deserves it.