PJ Harvey- The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016)

PJ Harvey- The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016)

By: Ghost Writer 

With so many terrible things happening around the world, I was wondering in recent days, where are the Public Enemys, the Rage Against the Machines, the Slayers, the U2s, the Living Colours, the Pearl Jams, The Fugazis, the Henry Rollins, the Bad Religions of the world? After what is happening in Europe, in Middle East, in Asia and in the USA, I can't see a lots of social conscience band like the ones that used to exist in the past, well recently I heard the amazing ANOHNI singing some really informed songs about certain relevant topics, but besides that, I don't see USA bands for example, organizing against Trump.

Let me name one more interesting name adding herself to the battle against our turbulent world, British great singer PJ Harvey, who took interesting notes about England and made them interesting songs on Let England Shake, now on The Hope Six Demolition Project, the powerful British singer seems to be taking a wide view outside England, as The Hope sounds hopeful yes, but in the middle of a bloody battle against darkness, just consider the "Hope Six" project the title refers is a project in the USA about demolishing old buildings in impoverished zones in order to create better housing options, obviously impossible to afford by the original inhabitants.

Yes, The Hope is a densely political album, perhaps the last thing you would expect from Harvey, it is also overall ambitious, but at the same time, Harvey doesn't get too heavy on the concept matter, besides traveling to places like Washington DC Kosovo and Afghanistan in order to research information to create stories and songs, The Community of Hope features a beautiful and impossible to resist melody along a brutally simple accompaniment, while on The Ministry of Defense guitars roar with apocalyptic fury, on both songs Harvey gets into really social awareness squeezing lyrics, along screeching saxophone on the second one.

For a Line in the Sand, Harvey takes out her known admiration for Captain Beefheart on a beaten blues that's both charming and haunting, while on Chain of Keys, things get militant thanks to a noisy dax that sounds like Peter Brotzmann joining Harvey in a dreamed jam in Paris, in 1968, when Bro had his Machine Gun deafening monumental band.

The Hope Six... Sounds raw and under produced, and that might br Harvey's intention, a record that sounds confusing, just like a war journalist in the middle of the battleground and adding a touch of 60s protest folk, like in the obvious Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln, where I guess the Harvey should have been joined by fellow British musician,  writer and agitator Julian Temple and his Black Sheep "Faustian" band, repeating the trend towards the crude and primitive on The Orange Monkey, with Harvey a little lost here.

But Harvey's thunder returns to her on Medicinals, a too simple melody with great drums and piercing hypnotic sax, where PJ's voice is able to come above the density of the loud instruments, projecting a certain way of despair among the events narrated, just before going really deep into the blues on The Ministry of Social Affairs, where Harvey sounds like traveling right to the glory ages of delta blues raw recordings.

Despite the powerful rock n roll in The Wheel, The Hope Six... Sounds like a too complex task fir Harvey to land it on good terms, is greatly ambitious, but Harvey seems more bruised and beaten by what's going on musically, rather than in charge of it, there are undisputed great moments and good ideas, but Harvey doesn't sound able to capture the raw feelings, the furious sounds and the evocative lyrics into really great songs, interesting, yes, it is, is a beautiful disaster, but I guess is the type of disasters that leaves you strengthened.