PJ Harvey Drops Washington, D.C.-Inspired ‘The Community of Hope’
PJ Harvey‘s upcoming LP The Hope Six Demolition Project finds the acclaimed British singer crafting songs inspired by her visits to Kosovo, Afghanistan and on the rocking new single “The Community of Hope,” Washington, D.C.
The track, inspired by an actual program that helps low-income families, documents Harvey’s journey through Washington, D.C. in an area surrounding the Washington National Cemetery. “Here’s the highway to death and destruction / South Capitol is its name / And the school just looks like a shithole / Does that look like a nice place,” Harvey sings on the track before assuring the listener, “They’re gonna put a Walmart here.”
However, after the song was written and recorded, a deal that would have allowed Walmart to open stores in metro D.C. as long as they built two in lower-income areas around the city fell through, the Washington Post notes.
“When I’m writing a song, I visualize the entire scene,” Harvey said of her new album in a statement. “I can see the colors, I can tell the time of day, I can sense the mood, I can see the light changing, the shadows moving, everything in that picture. Gathering information from secondary sources felt too far removed for what I was trying to write about. I wanted to smell the air, feel the soil and meet the people of the countries I was fascinated with.”
The Hope Six Demolition Project is due out April 15th. “The Community of Hope” follows the album’s first single “The Wheel.”