PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (2011)

Hello and welcome to Giant Undertow, a series about some of my favorite albums that feel inspired by Neil Young’s music and ethos.

Neil Young, throughout his career, has dealt with political issues and often done it very, very well within song, Ohio' being a prime example or 'Southern Man.' I can name many more. (PJ Harvey, Spinner, March 2011)

Let England Shake was a seismic shift in PJ Harvey’s songwriting. Albums like Dry, Rid of Me, and Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea had been very introspective, but she had been slowly developing a more topical voice, including on White Chalk, which preceded Let England Shake. Among other influences, Neil Young’s political voice was a small guiding light for this Mercury Prize-winning album. I would also argue his use of dramatics and textures is also an influence on the music. Her parents played Neil Young while she was a child and you can hear his sensibility in her music throughout her career, but for me, Let England Shake is the most telling example of his influence.

One Neil Young song that most reminds me of Let England Shake is "Don't Let It Bring You Down," (from the very Let England Shake-adjacent After the Gold Rush) a song I love but have always been conflicted about its meaning. At first glance, it seems like Neil is solely telling people that instead of letting sad events bring you down, you should try to help people who need it. The other reading of this song, though, is that Neil is condemning those who tell others to not let things bring them down. He tends to shift point of views in his lyrics and I think there is an element of that in this song. The equivalent song to me is "The Last Living Rose," which even has a similar loping rhythm to it. Harvey's lyrics praise England's grey dampness while decrying Europe. She goes on to compare the Thames to gold, "hastily sold for nothing," while walking past "stinking alleys" and "drunken beatings." Not far off from a dead man lying by the side of the road, right?

Perhaps the most brutal song on Let England Shake is the ironically named "The Glorious Land," which reworks Russian folk song lyrics to relate the too common horrific methods by which progress is made. The country is plowed by tanks and marching feet, not iron plows. The glorious fruit of the land is deformed and orphaned children. Tellingly, this song calls out not only England, but America as well. It's not a coincidence that Neil is most widely known for being anti-war and pro-farmer.

Harvey’s allegorical lyrics hearken most to Neil’s 70s output, while her razor sharp look at war reminds me of the way Neil would tackle it on the later Living With War. And when she interpolates Eddie Cochran’s “what if I take my problems to the United Nations?” on “The Words that Maketh Murder,” I certainly hear Neil’s sneering lyrics to “Rockin’ in the Free World.” When I first heard Let England Shake, the initial impression I got was a hearkening back to polite English folk and happy go lucky 60s garage rock. It was only when I focused on the lyrics did Harvey's sarcasm and attitude shine through for me. Certainly it was part of Dry and Rid of Me, but Let England Shake melded that attitude with gorgeous tableaus, which I've always associated with Neil.

Another instance of Living With War-before-it-existed is "Bitter Branches," with it's anthemic guitar-forward structure, using the language of the military to draw attention to the sad spectacle of waving goodbye to soldiers. By contrast, the tender, gentle "Written on the Forehead" belies the apocalyptic content within, like some of Neil's most devastating songs. Let England Shake continually plays with that push and pull between energetic anti-anthems and gorgeously melodic laments. The texture and breadth of the album is not unlike After the Gold Rush, which contains heart breaking melodies, intense rock, and cutting social commentary. Oh and it even has a bugle as well.

I've seen a lot of comments that Harvey's latest album, I Inside the Old I Dying, shows a lot of influence from Neil as well. I've listened to that album a number of times but have not picked up on the influence as much. However, I will always listen to PJ Harvey, as she is without a doubt one of our greatest living artists and it cheers me to know she is still at it, still looking at the world, still making her voice heard. Not unlike someone else...