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10.0
21225
10.0 |
Q
The Empire might have crumbled, but Polly Harvey, on this form, is queen. Print edition only
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10.0
21732
10.0 |
NME
It's tragic, it's beautiful and ... it's arguably her most brilliant record to date. Print edition only
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10.0
21838
10.0 |
The Guardian
A richly inventive album that's unlike anything else in Harvey's back catalogue
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10.0
21930
10.0 |
No Ripcord
Harvey sounds spellbound, portraying the subject matter in hand with a fervid spirit
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10.0
21882
10.0 |
Daily Telegraph
It is note perfect, considered and distilled to its essential parts by a great and ambitious artist
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10.0
21975
10.0 |
The Scotsman
A superlative suite of songs addressing war and imperialism
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10.0
22085
10.0 |
AU Review
Polly Jean Harvey has delivered a flawless masterpiece. An utterly magnificent album
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10.0
22119
10.0 |
Consequence Of Sound
An awe-inspiring, challenging album in all the best ways
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10.0
24706
10.0 |
FasterLouder
Let England Shake is as important an album anyone will make this year, maybe this decade
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9.1
21988
9.1 |
A.V. Club
Rather than unleashing the hellfire of her early work, Harvey hones rawness and righteousness into subtle weapons
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9.0
22036
9.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
Another bold, confident release by an artist that continues to amaze and astonish us all
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9.0
22050
9.0 |
musicOMH
A poignant declaration about the nature of war
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9.0
21892
9.0 |
The Digital Fix
Harvey has delivered her finest, most beautiful and fully realized album since 2000's Stories From The City
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9.0
21917
9.0 |
The Observer
There is always a risk that an album full of war poetry might feel like a downer. But the payload of grief on Let England Shake is made infinitely more bearable by music that really shakes, too
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9.0
21953
9.0 |
DIY
It’s difficult to judge whether ‘Let England Shake’ is a perfect record because like much of Harvey’s work, it’s unlike anything we’ve really heard before
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9.0
23014
9.0 |
Rave Magazine
In a gloriously grey world where Kate Bush and The Velvet Underground meet on a windswept country hill, you’ll find this album. Stunning
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9.0
22121
9.0 |
The Fly
An album of startling beauty, sadness and foreboding, contorting the morose and brutal into rays of luminosity. Remarkable
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9.0
22166
9.0 |
Blurt
The key to Let England Shake is that you must think something when you walk away from it. It's her least passive listen
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9.0
21937
9.0 |
Slant Magazine
A matchless musical world where Harvey reigns with autonomy
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9.0
21854
9.0 |
The Quietus
With Let England Shake she has shown that not only is she is her generation’s pre-eminent songwriter but, amazingly, that she is also still in her ascendancy
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9.0
21382
9.0 |
Spin
Sung with warmth, these tracks offer a welcome antidote to her more familiar performance mode - spectacular austerity. They're as bloody and forceful as the battles Harvey reference
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9.0
21454
9.0 |
BBC
Another fearsomely creative, emotional record to lead the resistance. God bless unique, unfathomable, great Queen Polly
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9.0
21765
9.0 |
Drowned In Sound
2011 can’t be that bad if, just two months in, a reclusive 41-year-old woman gets to release her First World War-based masterpiece on a major label
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9.0
21815
9.0 |
Bowlegs
There is little doubt she has made one of the albums of her career. Simultaneously stunning and tragic
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9.0
23823
9.0 |
Beats Per Minute
It easily vacillates between gloomy aesthetics and raucous rhythms, creating the loosest sort of rock record that is not only venomous, but also subversive
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8.8
21962
8.8 |
Pitchfork
Vivid portraits of war
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8.5
21996
8.5 |
Prefix
Less introspective than its predecessors -- looking out at the titular country and beyond
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8.0
22317
8.0 |
Entertainment.ie
Though an undoubtedly bleak record (particularly the daunting lyrics of 'All and Everyone'), the triumph of 'Let England Shake' is that it never feels miserable or depressing
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8.0
22442
8.0 |
Eye Weekly
It’s a tough listen, but is overwhelmingly and consistently gorgeous
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8.0
22484
8.0 |
Under The Radar
Brazenly navigates the treacherous terrain of her nation’s rich, and often violent, history
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8.0
23560
8.0 |
God Is In The TV
There’s a sense of optimism but underneath that blanket, there’s an absence of forgiveness for our war crimes
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8.0
21817
8.0 |
The Irish Times
A record of often profound beauty that, typically, doesn’t take the easy route
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8.0
21828
8.0 |
The Independent
On what may be her best album, Polly Harvey offers a portrait of her homeland as a country built on bloodshed and battle
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8.0
21233
8.0 |
Uncut
The sound of someone as maddened as they are enthralled, aglow with anger and passion
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8.0
21133
8.0 |
The Skinny
One of Harvey’s more intricate and ambitious projects
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8.0
21208
8.0 |
Mojo
Of all her many guises this may be her most powerful. Print edition only
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8.0
21710
8.0 |
Clash
Authoritatively potent, bitterly bleak and beautiful, this record is an unexpected but essential punch in the face
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8.0
21864
8.0 |
Evening Standard
PJ Harvey wants us all to know that the world is not a very kind place. Her - mostly - lovely songs make it better
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8.0
21945
8.0 |
Independent on Sunday
This isn't merely a historical period piece, and without labouring the album's resonances with present-day conflicts, that's exactly PJ's point. England never learns
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8.0
21951
8.0 |
State
While this may not be Harvey’s finest long player, it is certainly a work of substance, a record of our times and of England’s history
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7.0
22120
7.0 |
Tiny Mix Tapes
She's clearly interested in artful critique, not in proselytizing
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7.0
21963
7.0 |
PopMatters
A rewarding and staunchly uncompromising piece of art from a master songwriter who remains as relevant as ever
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6.0
22067
6.0 |
Rolling Stone
The sound is muted guitar/organ balladry, heavy on melody but never rocking out
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