The eighth PJ Harvey studio album Let England Shake. The album was produced by PJ Harvey, Flood and John Parish and originally released in Feburary 2011. Let England Shake features the singles ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ and ‘The Glorious Land’ and was the second album in the catalogue to win the UK’s Mercury Music Prize.

PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake was originally released on Valentine’s Day in 2011, but it’s anything but a love letter to England, specifically critiquing England’s involvement in conflict with imagery as strong as ‘soldiers fall like lumps of meat […] arms and legs were in the trees.’ Harvey’s lyrics paired with the high register she sings in augment the sense of pain she feels from the actions of her country. Instrumentally, brass instruments jar on occasion but act as a reminder of their jarring place in war. This album will forever remain a protest masterpiece.     FFO: Björk, Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom, Patti Smith. 

By Martha