Next month, PJ Harvey will release The Hope Six Demolition Project, her first album since 2011’s Let England Shake. She already shared a video for album track “The Wheel,” and today she dropped a second single, “Community of Hope,” which you can listen to below.
The Hope Six Demolition Project was inspired by Harvey’s wanderings around Washington, DC (as well as Kosovo and Afghanistan), and “Community of Hope” accordingly reads like a catalogue of the city’s varied desolations and the ways that big-time capitalism can crush true community in the name of revitalization. “Here’s the one sit-down restaurant,” Harvey’s tour guide says as he leads the listener around the album’s titular demo site. “Okay, now, this is just Drug Town.” The song vamps and cheers behind her as the developer explains where, exactly, the new Walmart will go, and while it’s certainly a sarcastic take on the idea of something so soulless and transient being framed with hopeful rhetoric, there’s also a sense of resilience in Harvey’s voice as she sings. You can check it out below.
The Hope Six Demolition Project is out April 15 via Vagrant.
