PJ Harvey
The Hope Six Demolition Project
(Vagrant Records)

UK rocker Polly Jean Harvey has always had the veracity to create wonderfully rich and pointed rock singles and albums alike. She has always had this delectable ability to make unforgettable rock gems out of a bluesy, edgier sound, and as PJ Harvey, the songs remain timeless, unforgettable, and lush. She can make a school girl-crush, pop track burst with strangling pieces of guitar and on the other side, with a couple of dark chords and her voice, she can make a song sound like both new love and the end times. It’s her gift and she’s wielded it beautifully ever since her very first album Dry debuted in 1992. Nine albums later, PJ Harvey brings us The Hope Six Demolition Project. If you’ve followed her discography for years, this is possibly not the release you would expect. It’s largely a searing commentary, big on message, specifically seeming to spotlight aspects of inner cities and linking them with abject poverty, drug use, and downtrodden despair. With jangly guitars and a rolling out of big, brooding sounds, Harvey’s narrative voice paints a bleak picture of a complex landscape of pain. People seem to exist as miserable ghosts without stories or attachment. The sentiments that crafted the songs were written as the result of Harvey journeying to Washington, D.C., Afghanistan, and Kosovo. Brighter in sound is “The Community of Hope,” however it quickly breaks way lyrically into, “OK, now this is just drug town, just zombies, But that’s just life.”