Let England Shake by PJ Harvey

Let England Shake, PJ Harvey's eighth studio album, came out on Island Records in February 2011, and it is about as far from the hushed, piano-led soul-searching of White Chalk as she could get. Work on it began around the time that record appeared in 2007; she spent two and a half years writing, then cut it in five weeks in a church in Dorset during April and May 2010, with her longtime collaborators Flood and John Parish producing. You can hear the room: the songs have a ghostly, echoing air, stark and strange and full of old-world ache.

Critics went for it in a big way. It was named album of the year by 16 publications, won the Uncut Music Award and the 2012 Ivor Novello award for Album of the Year, and in September 2011 it took the Mercury Prize, making Harvey the only artist to win it twice. "The Words That Maketh Murder" was the song that reached the countdowns.

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