New Music Reviews: PJ Harvey-Let England Shake, Akron/Family-S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
To speak where I am as a PJ Harvey fan, my favorite album is her 2000 release "Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea". The ballads are sweeping, her duet with Thom Yorke, "This Mess We're In" is engaging, the mid-tempo songs were spot on and the rockers "Big Exit" and "The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore" rocked with strong conviction. "Stories" was almost a coming of age, joyful effort. "Harvey In The City". Here we have "Harvey In England...after the disasters of war." Not as fun, but the only comparison I can think of. Harvey is the number one chameleon at her trade. Each album is an album that stands by itself. Repeating herself is not in the vocabulary. In regards to her eight full length "Let England Shake", it's honestly one of her best pieces of work. Other artists would flounder when given the opportunity to narrate an album on what they see in the aftermath of conflict, tragedy and war. Harvey instead revels in the sorrow. The images and mood she paints "Let England shake, weighted down with silent dead" on the leadoff title track or the apocolyptic hoedown of "The Words That Maketh Murder" where Harvey states "I've seen soldiers fall like lumps of meat" give the whole affair a hopeless feel, but her lyrics are the most thought provoking and disturbing she's ever penned.
Musically, "Let England Shake" remains consistent in tone with surprises ringing in here or there. Harvey sings in a higher octave than on past efforts (far from the "50 Ft. Queenie" days) kind of in tune with Joana Newsom or Bjork. And it works as it adds more depth to her narration. The auto harp continues to play a strong role and John Parrish takes up the male counterpart to Harvey's storytelling whether he leads the chant of "Gonna take my problem to the United Nations" from the standard "Summertime Blues" on "Murder" or their best duet on the aching "In The Dark Places". Harvey never puts the petal to the rock metal on anything, which would probably break the mood, but most of the songs still retain a rollicking backbone. Some good mood enhancers are the charging "The Glorious Land" where a bugle horn playing the "Regimental March" arrives literally out of nowhere off tempo and the sudden rush of guitars on the short but effective "Bitter Branches". A couple of the slower pieces "Hanging On The Wire" or "England" kind of fail to keep up with the moodier pieces that populate the rest of the album, but they're not stones. They're brief reprises from the horrors of young men hiding in the dirt, with guns, in dark places. This is the soundtrack for the aftermath of the apocalypse and horribly ironic in the wake of what happened in Japan last Friday. It's pretty eerie slipping this on with a bit of uncertainty in the air with the aftermath going on right now. As the background chant of "Fire" and "Let it burn" repeat over and over during "Written On The Forehead", Harvey hits you in the gut portraying life after similar tragedies that have unfolded recently. "People throw belongings, a lifetime's earnings amongst the scattered rubbish and suitcases on the sidewalk." A gut-check album in every way and Harvey's most reflective and unsettling piece of work is a keeper for it's impeccable songcraft. It's easily near the top of her discography.
Grade: A-
JHO Picks: The Glorious Land The Words That Maketh Murder In The Dark Places Written On The Forehead
Moving further away from the folk sound that the band started with years ago, the full on direction to more of prog-rock style is almost in full swing on Akron/Family's latest album "S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT". Composed in a cabin near a volcano in Japan (hence the outstanding album cover which I'll get more to in a bit), the songs here range from furied prog goodness to provocative lullabies. When songs pick up on the energy, they sound bold and fresh. Opener "Silly Bears" and the wonderful gush of "Another Sky" simply soar along on unbridled energy and complex, optimistic vibes. They try their hand to good use on a slick guitar riff that sounds like the roughed up drunken brother of Squeeze's "Black Coffee In Bed" on "So It Goes" and it's cool and collected attitude works. And with lyrics like "I stopped giving my change to all the homeless people out on the street/ but I changed back/ I give my change again/ to anyone who asks so long as I have a pocket", it shows the band still retain a nice sense of humor in their demeanor. Lighthearted and polite. I mean, you're not gonna take a band inquiring "Where did you get that honey, so sweet, silly bear" that literal right? So some upbeat songs work wonders here.
The more hushed approach on the precious "Island" and "Cast A Net" work spiritual spiderwebs as well. On "Island", an almost peaceful, tropical feel fills your speakers with muted slide guitars, pretty vocals, and lyrics about wanting to be on an island off Mexico. Even better is "Cast A Net" which works off a simply gorgeous, silent guitar refrain and some pitch perfect harmonies. But by the last three songs on the album, the quieter songs ("Canopy" and "Creator" especially) fail to leave much of a lasting impression, nothing on par with "Island" or "Cast A Net". And on two more buoyant efforts "Say What You Want To" and "Fuji I (Global Dub)", the prog tendencies tend to go overboard from rushing excitement to well...I think the tribal, overdubbed vocals culminating into a bomb sound (or is that a volcano exploding and bubbling over/who knows?) on "Fuji I" pretty much show a bit of an overstuffed turkey.
So "S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT" is worth a journey through, even if it is a wildly uneven effort and may be better to pick the songs you like the most and leave the other ones buried in volcanic ash. It's another smart album from their arsenal and will leave dedicated fans satisfied. Speaking of that album cover, the volcano spewing lava, the first thing I thought was they should have a dinosaur in there. Really. This could be a soundtrack for a Broadway production of Sid and Marty Kroft's "Land Of The Lost". But then, the lyrical matter of the album swims in present tense activities. So the real question "S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT" poses is "Are we living in the land of the lost today?"
Grade: B
JHO Picks: Silly Bears Island Another Sky Cast A Net
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