As concepts album go - it doesn't get much better than this. Polly Jean Harvey has been on my hit radio since about 2000 when I got into her with Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, but it was 2007's White Chalk that indeed made the #54 cut on last decade's century on this blog. At times as sparse as White Chalk and at times as full-bodied as, say, Stories From the City, yet Let England Shake is still woven from its own historical cloth. Yarns spun from fractured voices, soldiers wounded - it's written in such a measured way, and still sounds hysterical and muddled.
Tonight I made a fish soup for the first time in a decade - and the winter vegetables, alongside leek and potatoes, coupled with the lemon drenched hake made for a tranquil backdrop for this ace piece of work. However, my mood isn't to pull aces out of my sleeve tonight, as I've just finished a very tough jog after a bout of flu this week. I'm not gonna head into Saturday night and make my system shake - but I'll be eternally grateful to Polly for giving me a much-needed break. Back once again. ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
