PJ Harvey released her first album 19 years ago. Since then she has proven herself to be one of the more interesting musical artists going. Lyrically she'll tackle any subject with insight and emotion and musically she has proven that she is not married to any one sound. In fact what we have learned about Harvey is that the music and content go hand in hand, meaning the musical choices she makes for an album are completely tied to the theme and feeling she is trying to impart. This to me is a very interesting album. Here is what we learn about Harvey's feelings for her homeland. She loves her country, but she fears that too much war and thus death and hatred have left England crippled to a point where it can never be what it was or could have been. As she says in the opening track, "Let England shake, weighted down with silent dead. I fear our blood won't rise again. England's dancing days are done."
The album focuses on the war and death that has been a part of England's long history but mostly focusing on life after World War II. As a child of the United States, WWII in many ways stands for victory and a rise to prominence. As a child of England, Harvey obviously looks at WWII quite differently and can see, much better than I can, the long term devastation of war and continuing to wage war.
If you want to hear one of the smarter lyricists going today who also has a brilliant sense of composition then throw this on.
Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.
So Germany has a bright future as the most powerful economy in Europe, and the dominant power in the EU, but England is finished? China -- which was ruled by Mao from 1949 to 1976 -- is going to be the largest and most powerful country in the world, but England is finished?
ReplyDeleteThese things may all be true, but they cannot be explained by saying that England's history during the middle part of the 20th century was particularly bloody and cruel. The 1930s and 1940s were tough on everyone -- even the United States -- but England came through them much better than most countries.
I think you are looking at this the wrong way. There are times when I'm listening to an interview with the father of some 19 year old who just died in Afghanistan and I have these same thoughts about the United States. Maybe the kid is from a small suburb of Detroit. His father was laid off and with no prospects the kid thought the military was the way to find a future.
ReplyDeleteIt gets me to thinking that too often people in this country, leaders in this country think that the military and war are the way to create a future, but it's not.
One thing you get from this album is that Harvey loves her country and that when she was writing this she was thinking about all the young people that have died over the past century fighting in wars. I think you are taking her songs too literally. I think this is a personal album about some very personal thoughts that a person has about the parts of their country's history that make them sad.
I find this all very complex to work out. If I believe in the absolute sanctity of any single human life, then how can I believe that any nation/movement/cause is worth the ruin of even one single life? And it's not just the ones who get killed; it's also the ones who kill. In my whole life, I've spoken to five individuals who killed other people in battle whom they could actually see the faces of. It might not have been hand-to-hand combat, but it was close-range stuff. Each was in World War II. All five of the people were still living the experience pretty much constantly and seemed to always be in a state of fear. Three of the five literally said they regretted their participation and felt whatever was won was not worth the investment. And one phoned me at my apartment the night the bombing started in the first Gulf War and encouraged me to flee this country. I just find all of that pretty staggering to the point that I have a hard time ever having black-and-white thoughts about any of this stuff. The closest to black-and-white thoughts that I have are continuing to pay taxes and visiting people in veteran's hospitals.
ReplyDeleteI think there are two views that make sense: (1) You can adopt an almost-complete pacifism -- even to the point of not voting -- on the grounds that Christians have no earthly home. This was the view of David Lipscomb, and I think it has a lot to recommend it. (2) You can participate in public life in the understanding that we live in a fallen world, and that good men sometimes have to kill other men in order to prevent worse things from happening.
ReplyDeleteThe wars of the 20th century were no joke and, for the most part, they were not entered into lightly. If the British had not fought to defend themselves, they would have been conquered and music like this would not be possible. Indeed, the whole world would have been plunged into a Dark Ages, and millions upon millions of innocent people would have had their lives ruined and blighted.
England has problems -- just like all nations have problems. But the wars of the 20th century did not hurt England more than they hurt a lot of other countries.
Now, if she is simply saying something like, "I think wars are really terrible, and I wish there were no wars, and thinking about wars makes me sad," then I don't disagree with her. Also, if she is advocating a sort of David Lipscomb-pacifism, I can respect that view. But if she is trying to draw a connection between England's current problems and England's wars, I think she is looking in the wrong place. And if she thinks that England could have survived the 20th century in its current form without fighting wars, I think she is seriously mistaken.