Let England Shake

England, as seen through Seamus Murphy’s lens, is shaking. So too is PJ Harvey’s music on her recent, and internationally acclaimed, album Let England Shake. The 12 deeply engaging songs are each accompanied by the photographer’s still and moving socio-poetic images of everyday life in England. Harvey herself grew up in the English country-side, but she has since ventured far with her albums, from the raw dark rock of her first releases in the early ‘90s, to the piano-led pieces on her 2007 release White Chalk. On Let England Shake, the stunning singer yet again explores new musical terrain – with her unique sense of words she is carving through the countryside exposing the British mindset and taking no prisoners. The addition of Murphy’s images makes Let England Shake a musical and cinematic experience that is more than the sum of its parts. –CPH:PIX