People sometimes ask me what music I'm listening to these days. My music funds are somewhat more--restricted--than they were when I had a full-time job. I don't remember the last time I bought a CD or even made a purchase from iTunes. Yet occasionally an album does force its way into my awareness, and often it is through that cheapskate's guide to music known as YouTube. I recently came across PJ Harvey's latest record, Let England Shake, which was released in February. Anyone much younger or much older than I probably has no idea who PJ Harvey is. She was the iconoclastic banshee of 90s Alternative rock--a sexually charged, guitar-playing front woman for her eponymous blues band.
The PJ Harvey of Let England Shake bears little resemblance to that woman. Let England Shake is a concept album about World War I as experienced by the English--not exactly the subject matter of a platinum seller. But while Harvey's lyrics refer to a particular time and place (e.g., the no man's land of the western front or the trenches of Gallipoli), they also possess a universality that gives them the relevance of today's newspaper (there are occasional references to Iraq and Afghanistan). Musically, Let England Shake is unlike any album she has recorded. For one, she sings many songs in a falsetto register, and the instrumentation is unique: trombone, Autoharp, sparse piano, and snare drum and brushes.
I find Let England Shake to be profoundly spiritual, even if much of it concerns loss, or maybe because so much of it concerns loss. The album was even recorded in a former church, which you can see in the link below.
This is not the first time that WWI--always of historical interest to me--has been featured in pop music. Sting has a song called Children's Crusade that my band covered rather ambitiously when we were in high school. And I'm pretty sure I remember a Motorhead song about WWI, although I doubt it was quite as pensive as Children's Crusade.
Each song from Let England Shake has a promotional video on YouTube. Here is the song I've been listening to virtually nonstop for the past week: Hanging in the Wire.
*Many posts of late have had obscure music allusions, perhaps none more obscure than today's. When thinking of what to title this post, ATAWWIT was the first thing that came to my head. It's based on this: All This and World War II.
The PJ Harvey of Let England Shake bears little resemblance to that woman. Let England Shake is a concept album about World War I as experienced by the English--not exactly the subject matter of a platinum seller. But while Harvey's lyrics refer to a particular time and place (e.g., the no man's land of the western front or the trenches of Gallipoli), they also possess a universality that gives them the relevance of today's newspaper (there are occasional references to Iraq and Afghanistan). Musically, Let England Shake is unlike any album she has recorded. For one, she sings many songs in a falsetto register, and the instrumentation is unique: trombone, Autoharp, sparse piano, and snare drum and brushes.
I find Let England Shake to be profoundly spiritual, even if much of it concerns loss, or maybe because so much of it concerns loss. The album was even recorded in a former church, which you can see in the link below.
This is not the first time that WWI--always of historical interest to me--has been featured in pop music. Sting has a song called Children's Crusade that my band covered rather ambitiously when we were in high school. And I'm pretty sure I remember a Motorhead song about WWI, although I doubt it was quite as pensive as Children's Crusade.
Each song from Let England Shake has a promotional video on YouTube. Here is the song I've been listening to virtually nonstop for the past week: Hanging in the Wire.
*Many posts of late have had obscure music allusions, perhaps none more obscure than today's. When thinking of what to title this post, ATAWWIT was the first thing that came to my head. It's based on this: All This and World War II.
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