PJ Harvey- Let England Shake demos

PJ Harvey released one of the more interesting debuts of the 90s. Her sequel Rid of Me is a career defining masterpiece. She released several more acclaimed albums before and after 2000s Stories from the City Stories from the Sea which is a career defining masterpiece (I’m open to adding any of the others as classics. Uh Uh Her has both a terrible cover and name but is pretty great). In 2011, she released Let England Shake a career defining masterpiece. She followed it up with 2016s Hope Six Demolition Project which might be my favorite Harvey album to date. At this point, any comparisons to Patti Smith or Nick Cave should be focused less on the influence and more as a legendary peer. Let England Shake was an apex of politics and noise and pop and poetry- a callback like Iggy that you don’t have to be under 25 to raise a holy racket. It rightly found its way ok many Year end best of lists. PJ has been re-releasing her albums and unearthing the demos that were the basis of them. The Let England Shake demos are a revelation. The title track is birthed from the Four Lads 1953 hit “Istanbul (Not Constantinople), and while the correct decision was to divorce the two, but the original is no less mesmerizing. Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” works itself into “The Words that Maketh Murder” but once again the blueprint is as fascinating as the final product. Niney’s reggae classic “Blood and Fire” is the basis of “Written on the Forehead”. Elsewhere, where songs are missing that backing track, guitars are pounded and vocals are strained. These demos reveal an even rawer version of a raw album, musically and vocally. Yet while we generally listen to demos to see where an album came from (or perhaps in some cases before it started to go wrong), this album not only accomplishes that, but also serves as a kind of book end to the final album. Put together, I’m as excited about this album as if it was brand new and not a decade old.