Florence And The
Machine
Ceremonials
Island
There’s no disputing that
Florence and The Machine has an impressive set of lungs. Vocally, she was one
of the biggest acts of 2009-2010, and her debut album, Lungs, took the UK music scene by force. It spent more than 12
months in the charts, selling over 3 million copies. Florence then spent the
year frantically touring both the UK and America, modelling for Chanel and
writing tracks for the Twilight Soundtrack. Somehow she managed to find time to
write her sophomore album, Ceremonials.
Only If For A Night begins the album, and it’s a strong start. The
sound is both similar and different at the same time, as if linking the end of Lungs to the start of Ceremonials. The booming piano chords and backing choral groups set this
album off well, showing how Florence hasn’t lost any of her Gothic-edge. Shake It Out follows with its epic and
catchy chorus, with Flo repeating the title at full force. Lyrically, Florence
has never been ‘mainstream’, and her dark, gothic-style lyrics and phrases are wonderfully
intriguing and thoughtful. This is shown for example in What The Water Gave Me, a wonderful song with bizarre undercurrents
of watery graves and drowning. Never Let
Me Go is a beautifully stripped back song, with Florence revealing a
insecurity and vulnerability in her voice. A surprising highlight of the album
is Breaking Down, where Florence
almost whispers the verses, instead of belting them out at full force. Although
there is nothing wrong with Florence’s vocal power (In fact, it’s one of her
best assets) it does make a refreshing change to reveal her softer side. Florence
herself explained how Ceremonials is
a more joyous album compared to Lungs,
and this can be clearly seen on Lover To
Lover. A mixture of gospel organs,
soulful choirs and stomping Motown-inspired backing beats makes this a stand
out track. The American blues scene is a new sound for Flo which creates an
upbeat, fun and fantastic song. All This
And Heaven Too is another joyous track, detailing the language of the
heart.
No Light, No Light is rumoured to be Flo’s next single, and is
another vocally amazing song, containing the albums longest note. It oozes pure
strength, and is spine-tingling brilliant. Seven
Devils on the other hand is a truly haunting song, and it starts to make
sense why this album was released on October 31st. Eerie strings and
mystical repetitive piano keys create a stunning atmosphere while tribal beats
and powerful choral groups feature heavily on both Heartlines and Spectrum. These
massive 5-minute long anthems show how this album never lets up, never creating
any fillers or weak tracks.
The pure force, power and
strength that Florence has both vocally and lyrically shows how she is a one-of-a-kind
act, and how Ceremonials is a truly
stunning second album. (And if you need more Flo, then a deluxe version of Ceremonials is also available,
containing the epic anthems Strangeness
and Charm and Landscape (Demo) as
well as others.)
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