PJ Harvey in London

PJ Harvey is currently on tour launching her 9th studio album Let England Shake. I was at Troxy last night at her 2nd London show as part of this tour with another 18 gigs still to come in Europe and the States.

The venue was full and the gig started only 10mins late of schedule, which gave the audience just enough time to get in, get their drinks and take their sits. It lasted about 1hr and 20mins. Most of the tracks played were from the new album and were truly remarkable! All the reviews I had previously read were really positive so I was really looking forward to seeing for myself. The new album has a completely different feel from her previous ones. Having read some of her interviews, I knew that PJ Harvey had focused her lyrics around themes of war, struggles of life, England... That made me think that the tracks would probably be quite aggressive. Instead, I found the music quite uplifting and the lyrics more nostalgic and soft than I expected. The album is very different than her previous ones, her voice is just so strong and the autoharp she plays adds so much to the character of the album. 

To get a feel of what Let England Shake sounds like you can listen to the 11th track of the new album...

Written On The Forehead by pjharvey

Not surprisingly most of the remaining dates have been sold out for some months now. There are still some tickets up for grabs for her shows at the Main Square Festival in Allas, France on 3 July, Piazza Castello in Ferrara, Italy on 6 July and the All Tomorrow's Parties event at Alexandra Palace in London on 24 July.