Chamber pop seems to have experienced something of a renaissance this decade, from Fleet Foxes to Bon Iver to this outfit, Florence + The Machine, fronted by the statuesque redhead Florence Welch. The debut album, Lungs<\/i>, kicked off the 2010\u2019s quite dramatically. At first, it feels as though the sounds of harps and drums are competing with each other, but this is clearly intentional. It\u2019s what life is all about: soft vs. hard, yin vs. yang. Welch\u2019s voice complements all of these diverse elements beautifully. One minute she\u2019s down to a whisper, the next, she\u2019s belting it out like any of the soul divas that came before. Most times she settles into a unique, faux-operatic groove, as though she\u2019s an angel wafting on a cloud. Think Connie Francis meets Stevie Nicks (gypsy veils included).<\/p>\n
Forget the ever-annoying plasticity of the pop tarts like Iggy Azalea or Meghan Trainor who are spoiling the airwaves of today, THIS is the music you should be sinking your teeth into \u2013 like Florence fantasizes about doing quite graphically to a man\u2019s chest on \u201cHowl.\u201d From the stunning opener \u201cDog Days Are Over,\u201d (about resilience and inspiration), it\u2019s made clear that we should expect the unexpected. Changes from slow to fast tempo combined with the hook of handclaps and thundering tribal beats are what make this the Machine\u2019s most successful and signature tune. The harps are a bit overused and Flo\u2019s vocals are a tad on the languid, sleepy side throughout Lungs<\/i>, but these are tastes easily acquired.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a theme of being haunted by ghosts running through this tight collection of tracks, especially on \u201cBlinding\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m Not Calling You A Liar\u201d (which actually had <\/i>been entitled \u201cGhosts\u201d originally). Doomed love affairs are also captured to dramatic effect on \u201cHurricane Drunk\u201d \u2013 seeing your beloved with someone else is never good \u2013 and the rip-roaring punk song that was quite a daring choice for lead-off single, \u201cKiss With A Fist,\u201d about a relationship that has deteriorated to the point of domestic violence. It\u2019s all unsettling stuff for sure, and even may cause some listeners to question whether finding love without conflict is even possible or worth the effort. Nevertheless, such messages are very apropos for such confusing, turbulent times such as these.<\/p>\n
Another standout is the surprisingly strong jazzy torch number depicting a lesbian affair \u2013 with some choice lines like \u201cGet your filthy fingers out of my pie\u201d and \u201cI slipped my hand under her skirt, I said don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s not going to hurt.\u201d The jury will be out on whether this one is designed for a laugh or a shock for some time\u2026but is anything really all that shocking anymore?<\/p>\n
There is a redundant grey patch from \u201cThe Drumming Song\u201d to \u201cCosmic Love,\u201d but then a track like \u201cMy Boy Builds Coffins\u201d comes around and we see what a strong lyricist and storyteller Florence really is. As a throwback to medieval times, we get a sense of what life was like for an artisan. It\u2019s a refreshing change of pace to break all the tension and has a nice, vintage feel to it. <\/p>\n
The Deluxe version of this release is really worth seeking out. It features experimental cuts like \u201cHeavy In Your Arms\u201d and \u201cHardest Of Hearts,\u201d which both point to what the band has in mind for the future. \u201cFalling\u201d has amazing lyrics about all the ways we fall, flail and fail as human beings, and the deceptively simple, charming and catchy \u201cAre You Hurting The One You Love\u201d contains the refrain \u201ccould not stop,\u201d another sign of the times for the addictive social media-saturated world we\u2019re now living in. I do wish the bonus track re-make of Robert Palmer\u2019s \u201cAddicted To Love\u201d could have taken the place of the played-out Candi Staton remake of \u201cYou\u2019ve Got the Love\u201d on the main album, but I guess you can\u2019t have everything\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8429],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44156","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-florence-the-machine","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44156"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44156"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}