Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials

http://open.spotify.com/album/5SxudoALxEAVh9l83kSebx

On my second listenthrough on this; to my surprise, I am really, really enjoying it. I've read several reviews complaining about Florence blaring her way through every song that make me wonder if people actually listened past the first two songs because she's pretty restrained for about 80% of the album.

Current standout tracks: "What the Water Gave Me", "Seven Devils", "Remain Nameless", "Strangeness and Charm"

Florence blaring her head off and making it work can be heard on "Lover To Lover"

lol no one give a shit about this album, huh

Debuted in the top ten!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am6rArVPip8

To me Florence is like a mermaid singing songs from the deepest of oceans, like a bird singing songs from the highest of clouds. And we can only truly understand their meaning when we closely listen and let the water and the wind sweep us away.
LizeAlmighty 2 days ago

this comment got 50 thumbs-ups, btw

lol no one give a shit about this album, huh

i love her singles but man i cannot ever listen to her for over 40 minutes

I thought I felt that way about her but I dunno, there are some seriously GREAT songs on this album (the ones I listed upthread plus "No Light, No Light", "Spectrum", "Lover to Lover", "Heartlines", "All This And Heaven Too").

The bellowing is still there obv, but it's tempered by some genuinely delicate singing.

I was a little disappointed at first but it's really growing on me, and the live performances I've watched from her recently have been on key and not too shrieky at all.

it's less that i tire of the voice than i tire of the formula on this record

like in interviews when she said "i loved how 'cosmic love' sounded, so this record is ALL 'COSMIC LOVE' ALL THE TIME" and i was like oh noooooooo

because i love "cosmic love" but i am so tired

a+ most incoherent ilx post so far for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGH-4jQZRcc

So this video features a man in blackface stabbing a "voodoo doll" of Florence while dancing, who chases down Florence, and then she is saved by a group of white choirboys in a church who catch her and save her after she falls because the dude in blackface does something that makes her fall off the building she's standing on. The overwhelming love and light of the choirboys then causes the dude in blackface to go into convulsions and die. And then she's held in the arms of some random white guy who caresses her gently. The end. ???????????????????????????

How did this video even get made or approved?

wow Florence, way to ruin a great song

Caught the first show of the U.S. tour last night. Catsuit, several capes, two pianos, a harp, stained glass window-looking things. Florence was channeling Dominique Moceanu, running around the stage all night, but everything sounded great. It was a bit like the video above without the rolling is this racist vibes.

Best thing she's ever done (especially in light of those videos per discussion just above):

http://gawker.com/drunk-florence-welch-crashes-cover-bands-party-perfor-867510699

I am very late to this thread but:

So this video features a man in blackface stabbing a "voodoo doll" of Florence while dancing, who chases down Florence, and then she is saved by a group of white choirboys in a church who catch her and save her after she falls because the dude in blackface does something that makes her fall off the building she's standing on. The overwhelming love and light of the choirboys then causes the dude in blackface to go into convulsions and die. And then she's held in the arms of some random white guy who caresses her gently. The end. ???????????????????????????

Isn't this the natural conclusion of the quirky, idiosyncratic, 'I payed the bus driver in BUTTONS today!' aesthetic?

i.e. if everything happens in yr own mad dream world of sparkles and spangles, eventually you're going to end up producing something that jars badly with the real social world we actually live in.

And this isn't glam - glam involves escaping from yr mundane reality that you know all too well, and is rooted in the conditions of the seventies.

Whereas this new, C21st thing Florence is an example of involves never, ever having to live in the real world, seeing it off in the socio-economic distance and sneering at it, while you do your crazy art diva schtick, or your flat caps and waistcoats farmer indie chanting schtick, in a hermetic space of your own.

Or, having a bit of a sing up down the pub?

sourberry or whatever's cute girl singer at least looks like a good sport

Yeah, and Flo didn't take over entirely

saw her this weekend at the Bridge School Benefit -- honestly went in thinking I would skip them altogether bc I didn't really know much of their stuff & all I knew was loud shouty lady lol.

but hooooly shit is she ever captivating on stage. like, it's not just her voice but the way she moves, everything, like a fairy or something! and seeing the people around me react to her songs, one woman in particular on the verge of tears for the whole set, I wanted to hug her afterwards
people came down from the back rows to stand in the aisle for Dog Days & everyone was jumping and singing and dancing, it was amazing

this was the first song that completely floored me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iaz7xmoUnzw

Yeah, not universally, but she/they get great live reviews. Should headline many of the major festivals over the next 18 months.

No Light No Light is an incredible song and if you would like to continue to enjoy it unreservedly I recommend never watching the video.

copy that

Ultimately this album is too much of a good thing but when you break it down into chunks it's fantastic. You can build one of the best EPs of 2011 out of the songs I list upthread.

i dont enjoy Lungs as much, it's cool as a document of ~feels~ etc but it's a bit too all over the place & maybe a bit too unrestrained? idk

Ceremonials though I def like

http://pitchfork.com/news/58445-florence-and-the-machine-announce-new-album-how-big-how-blue-how-beautiful-share-what-kind-of-man/

new single premiered on BBC radio - it's pretty good, sounds anthemic but not in the way that got kinda samey, game-of-thrones-trailer-soundtrackish on ceremonials. this may be the most present the guitars have been on a florence song singe "kiss with a fist," I guess?

voice kills it, because duh

*since

oh wow that's kinda fun

I'm not a huge fan, but I really am liking this one because she's singing full throated and forceful and deliberately without any sort of parlor trick acrobatics. More of this plz.

"parlor trick acrobatics"?

Please, no lessons on how to talk about singing. I know what I mean.

So... you're talking to yourself?

When am I not? (Basically I just mean no weird runs or surprise falsetto moments or whatever.)

we can has video now (potentially NSFW depending on yr workplaces)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgeKHTcufLY

I think with Florence it's more been the long sustained notes rather than the weird runs or surprise falsetto that have sounded ugly to me

I hated most of the second album but am willing to keep an open mind on this one

The song was OK, but I hate the video. The aggressive gangbang dance number was OK, but it's become such a visual cliché that if you linger on two people having a conversation in a car, photographed sideways, for more than 30 seconds it's guaranteed you're building up to the car getting T-boned.

haven't hated any of the 3 songs premiered from this album so far and i might go as far as saying i really like this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9v8jLBrvug

This is one of my favorite songs of the year. Tremendous.

weird how they left this off the proper version of Ceremonials, it's better than most of the record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFpKwQBkJqQ

They did? Did I buy a deluxe version then, because it's on mine.

yeah this was on the deluxe one.

new album might be the most theyve sounded like a full band ever

definitely the most guitar-heavy, and in a good way

new one's her best

it's absolutely terrific.

if a little front loaded?

i really like it!!

if a little front loaded?

but "caught" and "third eye" are the best songs!

i dig the midtempo soul vibe on "caught" and "mother." overall, welch's voice has never been better and also more varied, like on the ballads

Best album.

to wreccccccck

YOU ARE. FLESH AND BLOOD.

it's still melodramatic to a ludicrous extreme (i love how the narrative to this album was that it's her stripped back, personal one, and then she's got a huge symphony orchestra negotiating the outtro on the title track) but it's probably her best album, definitely loads better than the last one but i still yearn for more light & shade

Ship to Wreck reminds me so much of Remember Me by British Sea Power when it starts.

Just watching the Hurricane show at concert.arte.tv and even though it's great and everything, I'm ever so slightly distracted by her weirdly emotionless eyes :-/

I'm probably imagining things because you can't see her eyebrows behind the bangs

The new album is okay. It feels weird to say this but I miss the histrionics.

Florence's histrionics are like Mumford's banjos. They're annoying until they go and then you kind of miss them.

Afaic she peaked with Breaking Down

The album is still plenty histrionic to my ears

her songwriting also got a little more subtle. do you at least like "third eye" djp

third eye has become my strange personal anthem to mental health issues.

Wow, me too. Powerful track.

this album deserves more discussion b/c it's good.

"third eye" is my favorite florence song now

It's the first Florence record I can relate too. The big poetic concepts didn't get to me in the last two records, this one seems grounded in a way that actually makes the scattered 'big poetic concepts' more powerful. In every aspect she learned how to sequence things better and right now I have very high hopes for her.

Also crap, this is a collection of 11 good songs.

"third eye" is my favorite florence song now

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson)

'Cause there's a hole where your heart lies
And I can see it with my third eye.
And oh my touch, it magnifies
You pull away, you don't know why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCM8Qf3eGMQ

Every year I've got an album I don't place in a top ten but which I play more often subsequently.

This is the one.

same and same

after my last breakup this album and ten love songs were all i could listen to

I get "Queen of Peace" stuck in my head every week.

SUDDENLY I'M OOOOOVERCOME

i think i like florence now? not sure how to feel about this.

my wife is a huge fan so we went and i tell you what she is a pretty goddamn amazing live performer!

vocals incredible and she's constantly dancing and running around..really sweet and engaging with the crowd, great band and arrangements (the backup singers also doubled as a brass section on certain tunes also some live harp which was cool)...def striking some middleground between stevie and kate bush....

it's interesting that people so hold on to like lumpy bands like foo fighters like "we need realy rock staaars man" and like florence is a rock star totally, she had the arena in her hand

my wife is a huge fan so we went and i tell you what she is a pretty goddamn amazing live performer!

vocals incredible and she's constantly dancing and running around..really sweet and engaging with the crowd, great band and arrangements (the backup singers also doubled as a brass section on certain tunes also some live harp which was cool)...def striking some middleground between stevie and kate bush....

it's interesting that people so hold on to like lumpy bands like foo fighters like "we need realy rock staaars man" and like florence is a rock star totally, she had the arena in her hand

yeah at the bridge school benefit 2 yrs ago she was incredible, looked like a sorcerer up there. it was almost like she could have levitated the audience if she had wanted to

yeah that album is still pretty terrific, i'm signing up for a few more like this.

realized v quietly, almost unconsciously, over the past two years that how big how blue how beautiful is one of the very best albums to come out in that time

totally. st. jude is so amazing

brad, you into this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhGz6BLywIo

Ceremonials is her best album. Highly recommend the mtv sessions

we got a new florence single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1TSiB9OuVM

I'm not crazy about it, but it'll do.

Shouldn't we get her own thread by now?

Sorry Alfred do you mean a general thread for Florence?

“hunger” is how big how blue how beautiful-quality good. should i make a new thread for this record lol

yall love to let you hear my remix of st jude, PM me if you're down

kind of a bummer but the new record is whatever

actually, nm, second time through, there's a lot of great stuff in the second half

The London song on the first side is good; reminds me of Tracey Thorn's memory pieces.

wait the new record is out?????

yeah!

big god is really good.

The leaked tracks suck.

i'm happy florence seems happier..but man she reps hard on the "illuminati' imagery

whoa alfred, which songs>

When she tones down the excess, she's boring.

still banging this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1l4pDXbkic

i really like this record but i'm a florence stan

i'm not huge on grace but patricia is for patti smith so YEAH

alfred, what do you think of this?

dunno think this album is amazing. her best since Lungs

New ones her best since lungs easily. Effortless and less convoluted / arrangements are more sparse and for the songs. Not like the last, as beautiful as it was, overly
Ornamented. This is much chiller and one of the best records this year.

Smart move on her part to release a 40 minute record with 10 songs, as most of her other records are quite long and factoring in special editions-deluxe versions even more expansive. Feels like she really cut the fat on this one, my only complaints are some of the lyrics are corny like the one about falling in love but the person could be anyone - that seems like such a cliche in music that needs to die a slow death. Also the part in Hunger where the song slows down and she talks about drugs kills the momentum for me, but it is pretty much saved by the reading of the line about staring at a phone - which seems mundane but is delivered with a real shaken beauty

Florence chronology

Lungs: ended up in hospital 2 weeks, this music saved my life

Ceremonials: moved to another city, stressed and uncertain about life, played ceremonials every day and souvlaki by slowdive.

How big, how beautiful: with my ex of three years, best friend, sowing on the couch and singing St Jude. Thinking I want to be with her forever

High as hope: Time to reconcile, get older, try to break down less and be “mature”

i need to get back to the new one....how big how beautiful ended up becoming my fav over time

Mine too. This new one mostly sucks.

the second half is great do not listen to alfred

Yeah brad second half is very good

I stan for florence tho