The first thing to point out about this album is the heavy Country/Americana music slant that really hampered the band's last few albums is severely toned down and nearly gone on this release instead giving us a more guitar driven modern music style. The album opens with the track "Firewall" which has a very strange, over two minutes long rambling monologue sample that mentions lizard people, Hitler, the garden of Eden, and more before the music actually starts. The actual song has slow tempo, blues-y guitar work and a very somber singing style. The random monologue plus the dreary tone of the song make it a tough opening track to get into. "Shell Games" follows and is a much more inviting song with a pleasing piano melody and gentler vocals before guitar and drums come-in to add a genial spark to the song. "Haile Selassie" is a nice change of pace song in the middle of the disc with hard guitar work and a quicker vocal style. "Ladder Song" is backed solely by a classical piano composition to beget a very haunting baroque sounding track.
Overall, it's a good to hear the return to the lo-fi rock music that helped introduce the band to the world rather than country music skewings of their last few albums. The album does ramble at times being unable to find a cohesive center to create something more than the sum of the individual songs similar to how the rambling monologue that bogs down the opening of the album seems to go on-and-on without making much sense. That's not to say there aren't nuggets of joy to be found on some of the tracks; it's more like there's no central theme to bring balance and elevate the album to another level like you'd find in an Arcade Fire album. However, I'll take the music on this album over the tracks from last couple of Bright Eyes releases anytime.
Score: 7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Shell Games" [sample it below] and "Ladder Song"
The eponymous "Let England Shake" smartly leads off the disc with an infectious little ditty from what sounds like a xylophone and then layers on drums, vocals, and guitars to make a catchy, vaporous song. "The Last Living Rose" continues the eclectic pop wave put in motion by the premier track with a jangly melody and off kilter horn work. "The Glorious Land" was where the album starts to take a less enjoyable turn. The tempo of the song seems ill-matched with the message of the song and the bugle cavalry charge melody they incorporate at the beginning of the song and during two of the bridges completely takes you out of the song. "On Battleship Hill" is another track that has a very clever narrative and the accompanying music isn't as off-putting as some of the later tracks until the song loses all instrumentation save an acoustic guitar when Harvey's singing goes all female falsetto.
Let England Shake would probably be best categorized as jangle/dream pop album with a heavy ethereal feel. The overall theme of the album is an anti-war message and that theme is readily apparent in listening to the lyrics of a couple of songs. It's actually a very well written, composed, and sung album but I had trouble getting into the somber music. The problem is that more effort seemed to be put into creating the messages of the songs than in composing catchy hooks and pleasing melodies. Thankfully Harvey is smart enough to not bang you over the head with her message, instead usually writing a creative story and character to say her piece or act as a proxy towards her anti-war sentiments. It's an interesting and eclectic album but one I found hard to immerse myself in.
Score: 6.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Let England Shake" and "The Last Living Rose" [sample it below]
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