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Florence Welch, of Florence And The Machine, is like some kind of post-modern Stevie Nicks in her explicit witch phase. She's like a Southern Gothic Persephone, and she writes these orchestral, sprawling albums about devils and goddesses and dreams and feelings so deep, so dark and so complex that they can only be conveyed via organ music complete, of course, with a 100 piece gospel chorus. She's the aural representation of an aesthetic tumblr blog.
Florence And The Machine's newest album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, pretty much follows in this tradition. Though definitely a continuation of Ceremonials, it's a good sound to stick with - so it doesn't feel like a retread. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful kicks off brilliantly with 'Ship To Wreck', one of the four singles off of the album. 'Ship To Wreck' is high energy and explosive, with a similar kind of broken-hearted enthusiasm to 'Kiss With A Fist', from Lungs. That is, it sounds like the aftermath of a huge, huge mistake but you're too far gone to care so why not just basically say 'fuck it' and dance one the rubble.
The best song on the album is, hands down, 'Delilah'. It's very gospel-tinged, and the epic nature of the references (Samson and Delilah, except also not really) fits so well with the bombastic gospel sound of the song. The chorus, 'Never knew I was a dancer, till Delilah showed me how', is a line worthy of a young adult novel about teenage lesbians who communicate almost entirely in classical/biblical references. It's so good, I just can't stop listening to it.
The whole album isn't as great as 'Ship To Wreck' or 'Delilah', though. The slower songs drag a little bit and occasionally meander into dirge territory. 'Caught' is folksy and slow, at times moving, but mostly it feels too long for something that doesn't really go anywhere. But this isn't enough to bring down the overall quality of the record. Other highlights include 'Third Eye' (which weirdly sounds kind of like a Spice Girls song) and the lead single 'What Kind Of Man', which is so aggressive and spiteful; it's truly a thing of beauty. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is a strong addition to Florence And The Machine's witch-y, Southern Gothic dryad-style discography. It's got the same layered, polyphonic sound that Florence And The Machine has been perfecting over the course of three albums and it's only getting better with each release.
Review Score: 8.4 out of 10
How Big How Blue How Beautiful is out now through Universal Music.
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