Back in September, we got word from a blog post by Mick Harvey that the next PJ Harvey is on the way for spring 2011 with a tour planned, as well. “We recorded her album back in May in Dorset,” he said, “and it’s a remarkable piece of work – quite unlike anything else out there. Would one expect anything else?” His post was later edited a bit after news broke, but a handful of February tour dates confirmed that something was indeed cooking. Well, per Polly Jean’s official site (via Drowned In Sound), we’re in for a big announcement on Tuesday…
Now adorned with various images reading “Let England Shake,” including the studio notes above, Harvey’s site cryptically teases of the November 23 unveiling. Those 3 words are, of course, the title to a new song she debuted on television earlier this year. Is that the title track from her new record, perhaps, or the first single? Hmmm.
In April, she said of “Let England Shake”:
[I]t’s an example of the whole album, really, in that i was looking outwards a lot more. I think a lot of my work has often been about the interior, the emotional, what happens inside oneself. This time I’ve just been looking out, so it’s not only to do with taking a look at England, but taking a look at the world and what’s happening in the current day world affairs.
I won’t continue speculating, so as not to ruin the surprise, but Tuesday couldn’t come soon enough.