Indie rocker PJ Harvey has released a stream of her new political protest song, entitled “Shaker Aamer.”
According to NME, the song is to raise awareness to a British national who has been imprisoned in the U.S.’s Guantanamo Bay facility since 2002. The song shares its name with the prisoner, who was never charged with a crime and has been cleared for release by President Bush in 2007 and again by President Obama in 2009, yet remains at Guantanamo Bay.
Aamer’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, told the Guardian, “The UK government must do everything it can to bring Shaker back home to his wife and kids in London, where he belongs. PJ Harvey has written a wonderful song – I know Shaker will be deeply moved by it, and I only hope that, with the support of the public, he will one day be able to listen to it in freedom.”
The track is Harvey’s first since she released the album Let England Shake in 2011. That album seemed to mark the beginning of her venture into politically-charged music, which she continues with the new single. After the release of that album, she said that it could be another ten years before she was ready to put out another one, so this may be something listeners will want to hold on to while they wait for a full album.
Earlier this year, Harvey was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, at the Queen’s Birthday Honors.
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