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The Community of Hope

PJ Harvey
Language: English


PJ Harvey

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2016
The Hope Six Demolition Project
sixHope

In The Hope Six Demolition Project PJ Harvey si spinge oltre, rispetto al precedente album Let England Shake: non era soltanto l’Inghilterra a tremare, non era soltanto la battaglia di Gallipoli a seminare morti sulla Battleship Hill, era tutto il mondo che si stava sgretolando sotto i nostri occhi. Per questo motivo il nono album in studio della fu Polly nasce e si sviluppa nell’arco di quattro anni e di vari viaggi tra il Kosovo, l’Afghanistan e Washington. Ed è proprio quest’ultima a suggerire il titolo del disco, riferimento al progetto Hope VI tramite il quale il governo degli Stati Uniti ha demolito gli alloggi pubblici dei quartieri più poveri della città per far spazio a nuovi nuclei abitativi e a una nuova assegnazione delle abitazioni, situazione che ha creato molti disagi alle famiglie meno abbienti.

The Community of Hope - The Ministry of Defence - A Line in the Sand - Chain of Keys - All Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln - Dollar, Dollar - The Wheel



The Community Of Hope è stata la seconda anticipazione del disco e ha l’onore di aprire la tracklist: il brano scorre via con un ritmo sostenuto sorretto da una melodia solare che nasconde una forte critica al progetto Hope VI sopracitato. Per questo brano, che ha destato polemiche negli ambienti politici del distretto di Anacostia, a Washington, è stato fondamentale l’apporto del giornalista del Washington Post, Paul Schwartzman. La canzone, così come il titolo dell'album si riferiscono al progetto Hope VI tramite il quale il governo degli Stati Uniti ha demolito gli alloggi pubblici dei quartieri più poveri della città per far spazio a nuovi nuclei abitativi e a una nuova assegnazione delle abitazioni, situazione che ha creato molti disagi alle famiglie meno abbienti.

The Community of Hope


"The Community of Hope," offered a dispiriting portrait of the D.C. neighborhood Anacostia. Local activists denounced her characterizations of the local school as "a shithole," and the addicted, homeless populace as "zombies." "Or at least, that’s what I’m told," she sings, making clear that those were her tour guide’s words. Perhaps she’s pointing out the subjectivity of perception, but there’s a frustrating reluctance on her part to assign any value or judgment to the things she sees, other than a few trite comparisons between haves and have-nots—not least a terrible faux-deep portrait of a homeless, disabled indigenous woman drinking in a Redskins cap.
They took one of the old notorious housing projects, and they leveled it and rebuilt it as "Mixed Income Housing". It's called "Hope Six," and it's supposed to... sort of rejuvenate everything. It certainly looks a lot better(*)

Here's the Hope Six Demolition Project
Stretching down to Benning Road
A well-known "pathway of death"
At least that's what I'm told
And here's the one sit-down restaurant
In Ward Seven, nice
OK, now this is just drug town, just zombies
But that's just life

In the Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope

Here's the highway to death and destruction
South Capitol is its name
And the school just looks like shit-hole
Does that look like a nice place?
Here's the old mental institution
Now the Homeland Security Base
And here's God's Deliverance Centre
A deli called M.L.K

And The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope

They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
(*) This intro is only heard in the video for this song. It is the voice of Paul Schwartzman, who, in 2014, was asked to provide Harvey a tour of DC’s roughest neighborhoods

Contributed by dq82 - 2016/4/16 - 09:31




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