Released 15 April 2016 Artist PJ Harvey Label Vagrant Records | Length 41:51 Release date 15 April 2016 Genre Neo-psychedelia | |
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Recorded 16 January 2015 – 14 February 2015 Studio Somerset House, London, United Kingdom Producer Flood
John Parish
PJ Harvey Nominations Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album Similar PJ Harvey albums, Neo-psychedelia albums, Other albums | ||
Pj harvey the orange monkey
The Hope Six Demolition Project is the ninth studio album by English singer-songwriter and musician PJ Harvey released on 15 April 2016 on Island Records. The album is Harvey's first since her acclaimed Mercury Prize-winning album Let England Shake, released in 2011. At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, the album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album, her fourth nomination in that category and seventh nomination overall.
Contents
- Pj harvey the orange monkey
- Background and development
- Recording
- Release
- Critical reception
- Other responses
- Commercial performance
- Track listing
- Musicians
- Technical personnel
- Art personnel
- Songs
- References
The album's title is a reference to the HOPE VI projects in the United States, "where run-down public housing in areas with high crime rates has been demolished to make room for better housing, but with the effect that many previous residents could no longer afford to live there, leading to claims of social cleansing." The HOPE VI program is directly referenced in the album's opening track and second single "The Community of Hope". The title is inspired by Harvey's trip to Washington D.C. with photographer/filmmaker Seamus Murphy where she was given a tour by Paul Schwartzman of The Washington Post, who directly influenced some of the lyrics on the song. Upon its release, the song drew criticism directly from politicians running for the council seat in Ward 7 in Washington, D.C.
Background and development
Harvey wrote the songs for The Hope Six Demolition Project as well as her poetry book The Hollow of the Hand during her travels to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington D.C. with photographer/filmmaker Seamus Murphy between 2011 and 2014.
Recording
The album was created in sessions open to the public as part of an art installation at Somerset House in London called Recording in Progress. The sessions were forty-five minutes each in length and began on 16 January 2015 and concluded on February 14, 2015. Viewers could see Harvey create the album through one-way glass with producers Flood and John Parish, who both worked on Harvey's previous album, Let England Shake.
Mobile phones and devices with recording capabilities were confiscated before entering and viewers were led to a basement-level room. During the first viewing, she was working on a song called "Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln", which is featured on the album. Harvey was reportedly playing violin, harmonica and hurdy-gurdy. It was also reported that she was joined by musicians Terry Edwards and James Johnston and that Seamus Murphy was filming the entire thing.
Release
Both of the album's singles were premiered on BBC Radio 6 Music the day before their release. "The Wheel" was premiered on Steve Lamacq's show on BBC Radio 6 Music on 21 January 2016, the day before its release on 22 January 2016. Lamacq also revealed the album's release date to be 15 April 2016. "The Community of Hope" was premiered on Shaun Keaveny's show on BBC Radio 6 Music on 10 March 2016, the day before its release on 11 March 2016. "The Orange Monkey" was released as the album's third single on 7 April 2016.
The music video for "The Wheel" was released on 1 February 2016 and the music video for "The Community of Hope" was released on 18 March 2016. Both videos were directed by Seamus Murphy.
Critical reception
The Hope Six Demolition Project received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 79, based on 31 reviews.
Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune praised the album, writing that it "builds masterfully to a powerful, closing one-two punch." Vice journalist Robert Christgau was more reserved in his praise, briefly describing the record as "politics according to Polly, meaning keen observation, analytic detachment, and paradoxically forgiving melodies scarred again and again by baked-in pessimism and misanthropy". The album was named MOJO's 9th best album of 2016 and Uncut's 6th best album of 2016.
Other responses
Upon its release, the opening track and second single, "The Community of Hope", drew criticism directly from politicians running for the council seat in Ward 7 in Washington, D.C., with former DC Mayor Vincent C. Gray saying, "I will not dignify this inane composition with a response," and his campaign treasurer Chuck Thies insulting Harvey with, "PJ Harvey is to music what Piers Morgan is to cable news." Grant Thompson, a pastor and former Congressional staffer running for the Ward 7 council seat, stated that Harvey "needs to see more of the city."
The Hope Six Demolition Project's lyrical content has been criticized for merely alluding towards issues with seemingly no propositions towards solutions. Laura Snapes of Pitchfork Media asked, "By pointing out the problems in these three communities, but proposing no solutions, is she (Harvey) just as responsible for their desertion as the global powers that came before her?"
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. It sold 11,436 copies and became PJ Harvey's first number-one album in the United Kingdom. In its second week, the album sold 3,372 copies and fell twenty-two places to number twenty three. It registered the second-largest drop in chart history for a number one album since Christina Aguilera's Bionic (2010) fell twenty-eight places.
Track listing
All tracks written by PJ Harvey.
Musicians
Technical personnel
Art personnel
Songs
1The Community of Hope2:23
2The Ministry of Defence4:11
3A Line in the Sand3:33