Under the Moon and Under the Sun

PJ Harvey “In the Dark Places”

PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake conveys a relentless, overbearing grayness in its sound. I imagine gray buildings, gray clouds, grayish light that stings your eyes and dulls your mood. As on previous albums, Harvey contrasts the bleakness of her arrangements with vocal performances that are passionate but slightly muted and boxed in by the tonality of the music. She’s brilliant in the way she balances unhinged emoting with varying degrees of repressed feeling — she always comes across as a fully formed character with a rich subtext. She typically uses this technique for character studies, but in “In the Dark Places,” she suggests a vivid story about young soldiers from a group perspective, and with only a few lyrical details. There is so much sadness and wounded humanity in the way she sings this song, but it doesn’t get away from the central feeling in the music, which is this resignation to grim obligation.

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