Album Review: PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project

I guess the last time I listened to a PJ Harvey record, in earnest, was 2000’s masterful Stories from The City, Stories from The Sea. I was 17 when it came out, and I bought it at a Best Buy with money I received for Christmas—blindly buying it, if I recall correctly, simply because of the song “This Mess We’re In,” which was her duet with Thom Yorke.

Four years later, I picked up the messy, nervy Uh-huh Her, and at that time, I just didn’t care for it. It was a difficult album, from what I can recall, with no real easy access point, save for one of the singles, “The Letter.”

For some reason, I skipped over White Chalk completely, and I can recall attempting to take a listen to Harvey’s last album, Let England Shake, and quickly turning into a Seinfeld No Thanks.gif—specifically the song “The Words That Maketh Murder.”

But, hey, now here we are, a whopping five years down the line and Polly Jean Harvey has returned with another politically charged album—the clunkily titled The Hope Six Demolition Project.

A bit of background:

The album itself was recorded as part of public art installations in London last year, where people could watch 45 minutes sessions of Harvey working via one-way glass. 

Thematically, the album is apparently inspired by Harvey’s travels to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington D.C.—all of which are apparent from the album’s lyrics—specifically her criticisms of Washington D.C. which are referenced in the album’s title as well as its second single, “The Community of Hope.”

Based around the notion of traveling to three very different places, as well as the unconventional method it was recorded in, Hope Six suffers greatly from a real lack of cohesion that some of her earlier albums pulled off so effortlessly.

Musically, it’s promising, or at least interesting, at times—“The Community of Hope” is catchy and bursts with its pomp and pop bombast, the dark trudging blasts of “The Ministry of Defense” are welcoming, but lyrically the song falls flat, and the album’s lead single, “The Wheel,” seemed at first like a slight musical return to form of the Stories from The City days, but it buckles under the “message” of the song.

Harvey’s already received some flack for the lyrical content of Hope Six—most notably from politicians running for council from the ward in question in Washington D.C—but also from rock critics as well, who question what exactly the takeaway from the record is. Harvey presents ideas, or problems in the world, but does not provide any solutions or suggestions.

For me, the political slant to Hope Six doesn’t seem disingenuous per se, but the whole thing tends to feel a little gimmicky and forced as it progresses. It certainly doesn’t make for an easy, or an accessible listen either, when the songs are about things like bad neighborhoods and children being abducted.

I stop short of calling this album a hot mess, because it seems intensely thought out as far as the process and execution behind it. However, it is maddeningly unfocused, and overall, kind of uninteresting. And despite its best efforts to be a “deep” record, it really lacks the emotional depth and punch of Harvey’s earliest and mid-career work.

The Hope Six Demolition Project is out now via Vagrant.