“The Words That Maketh Murder” by PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey picked "The Words That Maketh Murder" as the first single from Let England Shake, her eighth album, in 2011: the record's fourth track, out on Island. It's a song about diplomacy, the fighting in Afghanistan and the world wars, and she wrote every word and note of it. Flood produced it with Harvey, John Parish and Mick Harvey, and the three of them make a strange little parade of instruments: Harvey on autoharp and saxophone, Parish on guitar, trombone and percussion, Mick Harvey on drums, bass, bass harmonica and percussion, all three singing.

It was her first single since "The Devil" in 2008 and works the same folk-tinged seam. Critics loved it, though it never charted. Seamus Murphy directed the video, which came first, in January 2011, as the second chapter of a twelve-film series documenting the album.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.