different from what came before" and added that "its complexities make it one of Harvey's most cleverly crafted works." Praising it as Harvey's "most affecting and impressive work so far", Mike Williams of NME wrote: "Francis Ford Coppola can lay claim to the war movie. Ernest Hemingway the war novel. Polly Jean Harvey, a 41-year-old from Dorset, has claimed the war album." Peter Paphides of Mojo called Let England Shake an "uncannily timely piece of work," with Harvey at "her most powerful." Qs Victoria Segal praised the album's "remarkable lyrics" and "ethereal music," awarding the album a full five-star review, and Uncut reviewer Andrew Mueller designated Let England Shake as the magazine's Album of the Month, calling it "the sound of someone as maddened as they are enthralled, aglow with anger and passion." Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described Let England Shake as "a richly inventive album that's unlike anything else in Harvey's back catalogue" and referred to Harvey as being "at her creative peak." In The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick called it an "extraordinary album" and "a profound and serious work from a singer-songwriter at the height of her powers, a meditation on mankind's apparently endless appetite for self-destruction" and in The Independent, Andy Gill stated that it "may be her best album," described it as "a portrait of her homeland as a country built on bloodshed and battle". Amanda Petrusich, in her review for Spin, praised the album's "bloody and forceful" sound, and Jesse Cataldo of Slant Magazine said that Let England Shake creates a "matchless musical world where Harvey reigns with autonomy". Pitchfork editor Scott Plagenhoef noted that "it's universal and it's necessary-- and it's powerfully and clearly stated", giving the album a "Best New Music" designation. Robert Christgau, writing in MSN Music, called the album "a suite of well-turned if unnecessarily understated antiwar songs" and compared Harvey's "evolution" to that of Annie Haslam. Rolling Stone gave the album a mixed review and a three-star rating. Stuart Maconie wrote in Radio Times that "all her records have been interesting and singular, but for me none had the sheer, visceral, otherly power" of Let England Shake. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Accolades Commercial performance Let England Shake entered the UK Albums Chart at number 8 with first-week sales of 22,468. These sales were an improvement on the