PJ Harvey, Let England Shake
The British alt-rock queen's 10th studio album is a shocking piece of music and one that requires attentive study. Let England Shake focuses on the horrors of World War I — PJ Harvey describes fallen soldiers as "lumps of meat" and fish that are "quivering in the heat" — but wraps its atrocities in muted melodies that are so beautiful and chirpy, you at times forget that she is singing about a tragedy that claimed millions of lives and temporarily tore the world apart. The album is heavy in autoharp and zither, with the occasional xylophone; together their sounds create a fantastical, dreamlike sense that helps mythologize the war. And Harvey's witty use of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" refrain, "What if I take my troubles to the United Nations?," at the end of the lyrically gruesome "The Words That Maketh Murder" bitterly reminds us that the War to End All Wars didn't actually end anything. This is a daring album, and one that features some of Harvey's best work to date.