| FLORENCE + THE MACHINE 'Ceremonials' advance album review! |
| Written by Shahlin Graves | |||
| Monday, 24 October 2011 23:18 | |||
If FLORENCE + THE MACHINE's 2009 debut album 'Lungs' was the construct of bedroom daydreams, then her follow-up second studio album 'CEREMONIALS' is most definitely a roaring battle-cry of an awakening. It's the stuff that the realities of heroines and goddesses are made of... the reality of a girl to whom the world has offered up all its most privileged treasures and adventures. From performances at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, the 53rd Grammy Awards and 83rd Academy Awards, a placing in Time magazine's annual '100 Most Influential People In The World' poll, to sixty-five consecutive weeks of 'Lungs' charting in the top forty UK albums chart, a now-twenty-five-years-old Florence Welch is entire universes removed from her 2006 days of gigging as a two-piece around London under the moniker of 'Florence Robot/Isa Machine'.  'Ceremonials' opens with the otherworldly 'Only If For A Night' - in which Florence name-checks ghosts, grass and graveyards. Lyrically, this is still the Florence that we know and love - "I did cartwheels in your honour, dancing on tip-toes, my own secret ceremonials, before the silence began in the graveyard, doing handstands..." - but everything else has been sophisticatedly polished with expensive-sounding production. Think: a harp interplaying with a hip-hop beat under lays of meditative-synths, while Florence demands to be told "what all the signs are about." It's my guess that this would have been the song that Drake had handpicked as the song he wanted to guest-rap on. Lead-single 'Shake It Out' is a four-minute spectacular that I don't think I'll ever get tired of, no matter how many times I playlist it on repeat. Likewise, with tracks five and six, 'Never Let Me Go' and 'Breaking Down'. Fittingly, 'Never Let Me Go' follows on from the also aquatic-themed 'What The Water Gave Me', but is an airier cousin to its tracklisting predecessor with piano-driven instrumentation and a heartbeat-ish bass-line. I like to think of 'Breaking Down' as Florence's lonesome tribute to the martyrs of flapper-dom. With its cinematic string-section, cat-like intonation and vintage sass, it seems to me the sort of song that Zelda Fitzgerald would have embraced wholeheartedly.  'Lover To Lover' features Florence experimenting with a Motown-esque vibe and gospel-inspired vocals. Her voice effortlessly soars above handclaps and a hammering piano-beat, expertly showing off her range with vocal trills galore. Just one thing: more tambourine, please! In second-single 'No Light, No Light', Florence addresses a love gone awry: "You want a revelation, you want to get it right, but it's a conversation I just can't have tonight." Complete with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it dubstep breakdown, the song reminds of the urgency of 'Drumming Song' paired with the chanty-vocals and harp-twangs of 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)'. It's an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink sort of song. The aptly-titled 'Seven Devils' calls upon booming drums and eerie synth-sounds that wouldn't be out of place soundtracking a horror movie. When Florence declares that "no rivers and no lakes can put the fire out, I'm gonna raise the stakes, I'm gonna smoke you out..." you know that she means business.  Lykke Li ought to be jealous of 'Heartlines', which continues to make full-use of tribal drums and is perhaps one of the more buoyant numbers of the twelve-track [standard] record: "Your heart is the only place that I call home." Florence's glass-half-full attitude continues on into track ten 'Spectrum', in which she attempts to reclaim Destiny Child's catch-phrase "say my name" - with no musical similarities whatsoever - and rejoices in glowing like a rainbow. The lesson to be learnt here, is that: "As every colour illuminates, we are shining and we will never be afraid again." Track eleven 'All This And Heaven Too' is lyrically my favourite of all the offerings of 'Ceremonials', in which Florence laments being unable to understand the language of her heart. Introspectively, Florence relatably reflects upon her insecurities, singing: "Words, heart language, doesn't deserve such treatment, and all my stumbling phrases never amounted to anything worth this feeling." The album closes with the reckless 'Leave My Body', in which Florence channels both gospel and tribal influences with much aplomb, meshing them triumphantly to play out into the roar of an ocean. Florence declares that: "I don't want your future, I don't need your past, one grand moment is all I ask." 'Ceremonials' is a triumphant second album full of fight, big intentions, and even bigger vocal-hooks. Not that there was ever any doubt, but I needn't have worried that Florence would lose sight of the wildly organic humanity that made her debut so very, very charming. 'Ceremonials' is entirely cohesive unlike 'Lungs' which felt disjointed at times - but it doesn't feel forced - with the album satisfactorily playing out like a jigsaw puzzle you've been waiting two years for all the pieces to fit perfectly together. Florence herself describes 'Ceremonials' as her "incorrigible maximalism" - and with such an inspired art-pop vision like hers, who would want to rein her in?  MUST-LISTEN: 'Breaking Down', 'All This And Heaven Too', 'Never Let Me Go', 'Only If For A Night', 'Shake Me Out' + [deluxe edition bonus tracks] 'Landscape' & 'Strangeness And Charm'. HEARTOMETER: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 + 3/4 [ out of 10 ] YOU WILL LIKE, IF YOU LIKE: Bat For Lashes, Lykke Li, A Fine Frenzy, The Kills, Marina & The Diamonds... and the writings of Virginia Woolf and a psychedelically-possessed version of 'The Great Gatsby'. MUST-WATCH: Florence + The Machine's 'Shake It Out' music video... FLORENCE + THE MACHINE's new album 'Ceremonials' - featuring the singles 'Shake It Out' and 'What The Water Gave Me' - will be released in New Zealand on October 31st! Click HERE to pre-order the deluxe edition via iTunes. |
