Back to The Best Albums of 2011

12. P.J. Harvey, 'Let England Shake'

Island/Vagrant

Not quite an anti-war album, despite its gruesome World War I imagery, 'Let England Shake' reflects Harvey's ambivalence about what her once-mighty country has become. She's not pushing for a return to the empire, but on these eerily serene songs, she eulogizes a nation drained of life, "weighted down with silent dead." -- K.P.