PJ Harvey announced her eighth album about a week ago, Let England Shake. It was recorded inside a church in Dorset, England with assistance from producer Flood and musicians Mick Harvey and John Parish. (Parish collaborated with Harvey on 2009′s A Woman A Man Walked By.) She debuted the title track back in April on the BBC, but “Written On The Forehead” is the first proper taste from the album. There’s a soupy mix of voice samples, reverb, and an echoing tambourine that sounds like a bag of coins being dropped (perfect for the opening line about throwing dinars at bellydancers). But, despite the title of the album and the evidence in this song, Harvey told the BBC her goal isn’t to get political as much as to simply observe:
I think a lot of my work has often been about the interior, the emotional, what happens inside oneself. This time I’ve just been looking out, so it’s not only to do with taking a look at England, but taking a look at the world and what’s happening in the current day world affairs. But always trying to come from the human point of view because I don’t feel qualified to sing from a political standpoint.
Listen to “Written On The Forehead” at Soundcloud.
Let England Shake is out 2/14 via Vagrant.
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It’s out on Vagrant here in the States.
hahaha. what did i eat for lunch?
i sent this to my friend and he responded “this music player is messed up, i think. the vocals sounds all shitty and echo-y and sped up. got a different link?”
hahaha.
oh, and he was serious.
wow i like that she’s going different, like female artist Kid A different, probably an idea she’s been toying with forever. BUT yeah i’m not too keen on that vocal effect, sounds just like a weak tinny sound with tremolo over it…its INTERESTING but hmm idk, hopefully in full quality it sounds better. i like the sampling n minimal background music though. maybe she’s working with the dust bros?
When the song started and it was just the David Lynch-y synths and her voice filtered through the fifth and sixth and a half dimensions, I was worried. I thought it sounded out of sync, that her gift of melody wasn’t quite there, that somehow it wouldn’t work. But ah, the reggae chug and vocal samples put all my fears to bed once they came in, and suddenly made so much sense of everything.
I too, wasn’t sure about the vocals at first, given her previous efforts, but this (for me, anyway) is an intoxicating song. I particularly love the “let it burn” incantations throughout the piece. I’m quite curious how the rest of the lp will sound, but this easily falls into my top 10 singles for ’10.