Neil McCormick in The Telegraph:
'Harvey’s work has a complexity that makes it closer to art than pop, which is just one of the reasons why her win is unlikely to attract the media attention of her female contemporaries. Her lyrics are so carefully wrought they could stand as poetry in their own right, pungently reflecting on our war torn times and the tensions that underpin our island nation’s imperial history, while the music around them adds all kinds of emotional and philosophical nuance and textures, taking it beyond the possibilities of the written word alone. Let England Shake is an utterly extraordinary piece of work, which could have been fashioned by no other artist. The credits are extremely short and sweet by modern pop standards. They read Written And Composed by PJ Harvey.'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/musi ... album.html