Get set for more experimental rock brilliance from PJ Harvey this year as her ninth studio album, The Hope Six Demolition Project, is about to arrive to an ever growing audience of admirers. Recorded in public as an art installation at Somerset House, it’s an ambitious record that has gone to extremes to connect with the public and from the first listens of the opening single from the album, all signs are positive.
Release date
The album is being released on the 15th April 2016 and will be available on CD, 12″ vinyl and digital download. With the massive success and critical acclaim of her last album, Let England Shake, it’s definitely a release you should be including in your “watch with at least a passing sense of interest” list. It took the Mercury Prize in 2011 as well as being named as the Ivor Novello Awards’ Album Of The Year in 2012, which should give you a good idea about how The Hope Six Demolition Project will land.
Singles
The first track available as a single from the record is a flaming psych rock rumble called The Wheel. The wilding psych electric guitar is punchy with some similarities to Wooden Shjips, but the acoustic guitar rhythm is a mix of folk and pop with hints of early David Bowie.
You can watch the music video for the track below, which was directed by Seamus Murphy, produced by James Wilson and edited by Sebastian Gollek, working with production company JW Films. It contains snapshot snippets from four trips Harvey made with Murphy to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington, D.C. over a four-year period prior to filming. The have also gone inspired a lot of the rest of the tracks from the album, which are hinted at in the track list below.
The Hope Six Demolition Project track list:
- The Community Of Hope
- The Ministry Of Defence
- A Line in the Sand
- Chain Of Keys
- River Anacostia
- Near The Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
- The Orange Monkey
- Medicinals
- The Ministry of Social Affairs
- The Wheel
- Dollar, Dollar
Production
The album was released on Island Records and recorded in 2015 as part of the Recording In Progress project exhibition at Somerset House in partnership with the London based art collaboration, Artangle. It was recorded in a glass mirror box art installation at Somerset with her band, producers Flood and John Parish and sound engineers. Visitors to the exhibition got to watch and listen in to the whole process as it unfolded in 45 minute stints.
First impressions
The Hope Six Demolition Project is a dead cert for yet more critical acclaim for PJ Harvey, who’s indie roots have been getting thicker, stronger and more intertwined as the years have gone by. The Wheel makes for a white light introduction to the album and if the rest is even close to the same levels of genius, we should be in for another contender for album of the year from the iconic artist.
