Album: PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

The rarest of things; an album that speaks to my rational mind and my whimsical heart effortlessly and melodically.

In Let England Shake PJ Harvey has created her most accessible album since Mercury Prize winning Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. That's not to say it is mainstream or without challenges.

A dark-hearted lullaby backs the unmistakable crystal tones, putting the poetic pieces together to make a set of multi-layered songs about an England now only glorious in its decay.

Using the Great War as a back drop Polly Jean sounds the Last Post for this country. In mourning for the mistakes of the past this album could easily be about the future we're currently facing. This album is full of the dead and of death, of despair and desolation. It is melancholy but never depressing.

As you'd expect from Ms Harvey the unexpected is at every turn. As sparse and uncomfortable begins to send shivers down the spine warmth is injected and hope offered and the shivers continue for a different reason all together.

Here a sea shantyesque refrain, then pastoral folk resonates, a plethora of instruments ebbing and flowing around the clear, cold, familiar voice leading you through this landscape of myths and mistakes.

An album of our time and yet already sounding timeless PJ Harvey once again delivers a phenomenal album and asserts herself as a creative songwriter and musician (all without having to wear a dress made of meat).