Let England Shake

On 'Let England Shake', PJ Harvey presents a stark meditation on conflict and national identity, drawing on historical events from the Gallipoli campaign to contemporary warfare. The album's sound is a significant departure from her prior work, contrasting bleak lyrical imagery with a sonic palette of autoharp, saxophone, and vibrant, often folk-inflected arrangements. Harvey adopts a detached, higher-register vocal to serve as a narrator over the tracks, which were recorded live in a Dorset church with producers Flood and John Parish to capture a resonant, and at times unsettling, atmosphere. The work was met with universal critical acclaim for its inventive synthesis of theme and sound, earning the Mercury Prize and marking a pivotal achievement in her discography.