Let England Shake

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Critic Score
Based on 44 reviews
2011 Ratings: #1 / 1031
Year End Rank: #1
User Score
2011 Rank: #28
Liked by 159 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Telegraph
For all its despair at the cost of war, this is not a protest record, rather a consideration of our place in the greater scheme of things.
100
Entertainment Weekly
Harvey uses the bright grooves to present her grim thoughts on the world's armed conflicts. It's a hoedown for the end of civilization.
100
The Guardian
You're left with a richly inventive album that's unlike anything else in Harvey's back catalogue.
100
AllMusic

In its own way, Let England Shake may be even more singular and unsettling than White Chalk was, and its complexities make it one of Harvey’s most cleverly crafted works.

100
NME

‘Let England Shake’ is a record that ventures deep into the heart of darkness of war itself and its resonance throughout England’s past, present and future.

100
No Ripcord

Harvey sounds spellbound, portraying the subject matter in hand with a fervid spirit. She’s not sermonizing on the issue, but gently urging for something to be done.

100
Consequence of Sound

It’s an awe-inspiring, challenging album in all the best ways. PJ Harvey has created an album that will be at the top of everyone’s “Best of” list come December.

100
The Arts Desk
Harvey has never done comfortable or easy listening. This has been her strength.
100
Q Magazine
Her state-of-the-nation address. Stunning.
91
A.V. Club

Shake’s transcendence lies in Harvey’s acceptance of the limitations of the political album, and the way she recombines protest-music traditions while rejoicing in them—not to mention the fact that the disc houses some of her surest, most haunted tunes in years.

90
Sputnikmusic

Harvey has, after all, avoided the notion that Let England Shake has a particular political motive. She seems more interested in exploring the feelings that arise in times of conflict and finding the intimacy in war's brute force and broad strokes.

90
American Songwriter

Since PJ Harvey is a veteran artist who, in her 20-year career, has yet to either make a bad record or repeat herself, to call her latest, Let England Shake, one of her strongest efforts to date is a bold statement, but it’s true — this a brilliant record by an artist impervious to aging.

90
Gigwise
Through drawing on the environment in an intelligent and simple way, PJ Harvey has created yet another rare and unique masterpiece, proving that her constantly maturing musical journey has certainly come to fruition, on this one.
90
Slant Magazine
The album is a matchless musical world where Polly Jean Harvey reigns with autonomy.
90
Spectrum Culture
This is the questing urgency fomented into astonishing music, which is what PJ Harvey has always been able to do when operating at the peak of her considerable powers.
90
God Is in the TV
There’s a sense of optimism but underneath that blanket, there’s an absence of forgiveness for our war crimes. The colour of the earth? Melancholy black.
90
DIY
It’s difficult to judge whether ‘Let England Shake’ is a perfect record because like much of Harvey’s work, it’s unlike anything we’ve really heard before.
90
Beats Per Minute

It is able to deftly blend the vividness and conviction of a protest album with all of the yearning of what just has to be a genuine patriotic outcry.

90
SPIN

Sung with warmth, these tracks offer a welcome antidote to her more familiar performance mode — spectacular austerity. They’re as bloody and forceful as the battles Harvey references.

90
musicOMH

Loose and sparse as it is, Let England Shake serves much the same function, lingering in the mind long after its engrossing runtime.

90
Drowned in Sound

Let England Shake is neither damning, patriotic, nor angry and its gristly lyrics do not dictate the mood.

88
Pitchfork

Even considering all of the horror on display, this is her most straightforward and easy to embrace album in a decade.

85
The Line of Best Fit
This record is quite simply a work that is unlike anything that has come before it, and since Ms. Harvey refuses to ever repeat herself, it’s surely unlike anything that will come after it as well.
85
Coke Machine Glow

Where the album really excels ... is in how it marries slightly absurd melodies to its lyrics to create a portrait of surreality and madness, as was so often rendered by those same Modernist poets Harvey cites as an influence.

85
Prefix

Harvey’s singing delivers the material by juggling unwieldy emotions with care and empathy. And she makes the experience sound natural — like a true no-brainer.

80
Evening Standard
PJ Harvey wants us all to know that the world is not a very kind place. Her - mostly - lovely songs make it better.
80
Classic Rock
A bravura love-hate letter to her troubled homeland.
80
The Irish Times
A record of often profound beauty that, typically, doesn’t take the easy route.
80
The Needle Drop
PJ Harvey's latest album is easily one of her most accessible and cohesive. The lyrics are loaded with political ammunition, dealing with every from war to England as an institution. Imagery of soldiers and deformed children make it a pretty dark listen, and the production only enhances the experience.
80
The Independent
On what may be her best album, Polly Harvey offers a portrait of her homeland as a country built on bloodshed and battle, not so much a police state as a nation in thrall to military endeavour, however impotent and wasteful that has become.
80
NOW Magazine
It’s a passionate portrait of the human and communal costs of war, and the systems that keep us fighting.
80
Mojo

Of all her many guises ... this may be her most powerful.

80
Uncut

Let England Shake is the sound of someone as maddened as they are enthralled, aglow with anger and passion.

80
Clash
Authoritatively potent, bitterly bleak and beautiful, this record is an unexpected but essential punch in the face.
80
The Skinny

Both conceptually and musically ... Let England Shake is one of Harvey’s more intricate and ambitious projects; in a career defined by shifts in direction, it marks yet another success.

80
Under the Radar

If there's an underlying motif that guides Let England Shake, it's one of being utterly enraged with the seemingly endless cycle of war and violence, while simultaneously being captivated by the mythology of one's home nation.

70
PopMatters

Let England Shake is a rewarding and staunchly uncompromising piece of art from a master songwriter who remains as relevant as ever. If it all feels a bit foreign or new, it's because Harvey, as always, refuses to repeat herself.

70
Tiny Mix Tapes

While albums like Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and To Bring You My Love found her looking inward — Let England Shake sees her peeking beyond her inner observations into the complicated web of English politics.

60
Rolling Stone

Always an underrated guitarist, Harvey makes use of the jaunty rhythms of British folk music, but takes no comfort in the past. And you don’t have to care about English history — or England in general — to fall under Harvey’s spell.

60
Record Collector
Though not one of her stronger albums, Harvey succeeds once again in her goal of never repeating herself.
koner1
93

Happy Valentine’s day y’all. I may not have someone to spend today with but I do have something worth celebrating either way: 10 years since the release of PJ Harvey’s *second* best album, “Let England Shake”.

It’s been a little over a month but the images are still in my head and there’s no sign of them leaving any time soon. New footage was presented at the impeachment trial but I won’t watch it. I’ve already seen enough. I asked my dad ... read more

LZGray
80

If an American made an album like this, they would be called unpatriotic and a disgrace to our country... yet I find this to be one of the most patriotic albums I've ever heard, written by someone who is proud to be a citizen of their country yet cannot excuse the problematic, war-hungry imperialism that leaves a stain on the psyche of soldiers, widows and orphans, and the government that continues to financially sustain this conflict. Lyrically, it's presented very simply and bluntly, in a way ... read more

ryanreviews
95

I’ve been sitting with this album for a few weeks and it just gets better each time I hear it. On Let England Shake, PJ Harvey created an ambitious statement politically, historically, and musically. This album is years ahead of its time as the issues that it tackles would not be brought to the forefront for years to come. This album tears down the 4th wall and pulls you into war-ridden England, with haunting accounts of war as well as the public’s mindset during these times. The ... read more

AnotherWhiteMan
90

White man approved.

LukasLima
86

Genial.

* Let England Shake (9.5/10)
* The Last Living Rose (9/10)
* The Glorius Land (9/10)
* The Words That Maketh Murder (8.5/10)
* All And Everyone (8/10)
* On Battleship Hill (8/10)
* England (8.5/10)
* In The Dark Places (8.5/10)
* Bitter Branches (8/10)
* Hanging In The Fire (7.5/10)
* Written On The Forehead (7.5/10)
* The Colour Of The Earth (8/10)

Nota Final: 83/100

PONTOS ADICIONAIS

• Vocais +1
• Composição +1
• Produção +1

Nota ... read more

100

Makes me proud and horrified to be British

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