PJ Harvey abandoned theatrical bombast a long while ago, instead allowing her compositions to swirl and gather like smoke as she moved beyond her third decade. "A Child's Question, August" is Harvey's most diffuse offering yet, desiccating the full-blooded rumble of The Hope Six Demolition Project and the watery folk-rock of her 2011 opus Let England Shake for an opalescent drift — a ghost flitting between the trees.
The first single from her upcoming 10th studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying, the song is a twisted sort of fable suffused with Dorset mists and the spirit of Elvis. It's a shadow of a song, sustained by a few simple chords and some rolling percussion, but it never feels slight; instead it feels unknowable, the kind of song that will only reveal itself further with time. Harvey has never been one for easy answers, and "A Child's Question, August," stays true to the ambiguity of its title.
(Partisan)The first single from her upcoming 10th studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying, the song is a twisted sort of fable suffused with Dorset mists and the spirit of Elvis. It's a shadow of a song, sustained by a few simple chords and some rolling percussion, but it never feels slight; instead it feels unknowable, the kind of song that will only reveal itself further with time. Harvey has never been one for easy answers, and "A Child's Question, August," stays true to the ambiguity of its title.