This is a peachy album, I like it. Basically PJ Harvey has recorded acoustic piano music with a few bars, instruments and some drums thrown in. In regards to the title i’d say England only shakes because it's pissed all the time but Let England Shake has a melancholic feeling to it with some of the chord changes. I wouldn’t say that’s very unusual for this type of music. Not an awful lot I can say, but it's nice.
I had it on shuffle by accident, ‘The Glorious Land’ started and I liked this from the start.
It made me feel like summer was coming, but I'm not sure how the military horn fits in, and although it’s not a very military sounding song, it’s an all round good track.
"The last Living Rose", this one made me thing of "Wild Thing", only less heavy. I was caught out by the sax that kicks in, which I wasn’t expecting. It also slightly reminds me of MGMT, in a very nice way. "The Words That Maketh Murder" follows a similar style.
"Bitter Branches" came on next, strong sound for an acoustic album; PJ Harvey has a booming voice aided by a shit load of reverb I might add.
This one made me drum along on my laptop, I felt like it should kick in with distorted guitars and big drums but it ended instead, fairly short at 2:29.
Many of the songs are similar, I am only picking up on the ones I think have something good to offer, "Written On The Forehead" is one of them.
Imagine lying down in a field with some tinnies and some friends on a nice summer’s day, and then getting horrendously drunk and burning down a house.
I like this album, not something I would normally listen to but it’s definitely worth your time and money. I can imagine listening to it with a massive hangover.
There we have it then, buy this album and add it to your hangover playlist; I guarantee you will feel better after. I know this for obvious reasons.
Words: Tim Bascombe
