I’ll be honest here: I’ve only listened to The Hope Six Demolition Project a handful of times since it came out. It’s good and all, and “The Wheel” is Polly Jean working at her absolute best badass mode. But it strikes me as a somewhat unremarkable album in the context of her discography in general and more specifically in the aftermath of Let England Shake.

I suspect that the unfavorable comparisons to Let England Shake have to do with two things: 1) the basic similarities of the two projects (protest records focused on specific regions), and 2) the difference between PJ writing about her native England compared to Washington DC. Hope Six is a blunt record, and not that England isn’t, but whereas England‘s bluntness is the product of a very specific kind of anger, Hope Six‘s anger could have been directed at almost any major American city. “They’re gonna put a Wal-Mart here” isn’t exactly a DC-specific indictment.

But it’s good! Don’t get me wrong! Just not, like, Let England Shake good. I guess she can’t make career-best albums every time.