With all these early reviews I'm surprised it hasn't leaked. I could do with a leak right about now (album leak that is). I've already pre-ordered it so my guilt would mostly be alleviated.

lol, I've pre-ordered a physical and a digital copy so I wouldn't feel guilty. I'd only listen to it though if all the tracks came out at once. A Line in The Sand and Ministry of Defense I'm particularly eager to hear since we didn't hear them last year at all. Really eager to hear River Anacostia and Chain of Keys too.

http://www.noise11.com/news/new-music-releases-for-1-april-2016-20160401

"All tracks/singles below are Downloads (DL) unless otherwise stated:

March 31st:

A Line in the Sand – PJ Harvey (Universal)"

Once again: WTF?
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"The Wheel" was announced by this site for January 14th, but really was out for sale on January 21st, so I guess "A Line in the Sand" will be released about a week before the album (like "The Words That Maketh Murder") - and maybe with B-Side.

Seeing how "The Community Of Hope" etched vinyl release is listed on some sites as a Record Store Day special, I guess both of the songs we've already heard could now be referred to as "radio singles / preview tracks / collectible items", generously handed to fans for the long wait, and the "real" singles with B-Sides are still ahead.

That would be great if 'A Line in the Sand' got released! Here's hoping it's the renamed Commissioner I heard her record last year!

Im 100 percent sure it is the same song. What did it sound like when you heard it? Did you hear the instrumentation?

Based on reviews, I think "A Line in the Sand" is piano based and with airy (but emotional) vocals. [We might already heard a bit from it in radio-play "Orpheus and Eurydice".]

I kinda imagine it as a mix between "Grow Grow Grow" and "Hanging in the Wire".

Ive sort of imagined it being an upbeat song, it would be interesting if that bit from Orpheus is the chorus to the song.

"There’s also scratching heard in her headphones and the slide guitar doesn't make the song they’re working on ("A Line in the Sand") happy which is how Harvey intends the song to sound. "

" It is as catchy as TWTMM but with a jazzie, slightly heavier sound and the song ends in an abrupt way. Her voice was in her upper range again and I am convinced that she has been working in her upper register quite a lot. "

The High Commissioner song was sun in a higher register. It was ver catchy with a lot of "oh ohs" and one of the lines was "When will we stop the murdering.."

I was also there to witness a really catchy guitar riff being recorded, which turned the song from a good album track to a lead single. It sounded quite heavy and unrelenting. The song sounded like Polly was going to war.

http://brightonsfinest.com/html/index.php/12-music/1363-pj-harvey-the-hope-six-demolition-project

Strangely enough, in relation to "The Ministry of Social Affairs" they used a quote from "The Beggars" poem. Also mistakenly wrote about "Chain of Keys" being about Afghanistan, and about saxophone being her new instrument (as if it wasn't her first instrument ever, and if she hasn't played it on "LES").

Best comments I have read regarding The Community of Hope. Left on Youtube by Bob Blackadder:

'Love this! Hope for a community isn’t the chance of a fucking Walmart. $90 million on tax breaks and incentives for the business instead of social supports for the community might have meant cheaper products for some residents, but it also meant closure of small local businesses that can’t compete, profits going out the community not in, the school still a shithole, kids still unhappy. What sort of community saviour bails because they can’t get round a minimum wage bill?'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsLqsqbObyg

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Wiggins is so superbly unassuming, he looks like he's about to say 'Pop the gold medal in the post, I'm nipping out for some biscuits'

Mark Steel

Guys, I just need to get this off of me (and of course I'm at the right place to do so). I'm so excited for the new music, pictures, shows, interviews, appearances... Anyway, I feel like I just can't wait anymore!!!!

I've been feeling the same for at least the last three months! (((

It is SO unfair what those music journalists get to hear it before us - their reviews are almost identical.

Those journalists haven't received any physical copy yet, they were all invited at Island's office for a private listening in London, NYK, Paris, etc..., they must have had the right to listen to it twice in a row.
For big releases, there are not pre release promo copies anymore. The risk is too high for the sales. Which means in a certain way that the art of reviewing an album is over; for reviewing a cd, you need to be alone at home in a room and listen to it at least ten times in a week to have a good view over a work. For instance, none of the reviews of Bowie's last lp were reviews, they were just impressions. Journalists should now write 2 reviews per album, once before the release, and a second once they had the actual copy at home. This is the years 2010s...

But Ive seen some of the reviewers mention that they received their copy in the mail. Im pretty sure they have received the album.

Bowie's last lp was leaked only 2 days before its official release and yet many reviews had been published in the previous weeks. For PJ's new lp, it will probably be the same thing, it'll surface around April 13. "Patience is a virtue but I don't have the time"