Ceremonials Review

I feel really, really sorry for Florence Welch. I mean, she's gorgeous and talented and I want to marry her one day (call me, Flo ;)) but Lungs was an absolute monster. Every single was huge, the album is a ripper, it won that many bloody awards and I can attest that the Florence + The Machine live show is a must see, easily one of the best I've seen. Coming into a second album is hard enough but with the weight of expectation on your shoulders as big as she must be carrying on her delicate, classic frame, pale skin contrasting beautifully against her flame red hair framing those big eyes... wait, where was I going with this? Oh, right, weight of expectation.

To her credit, she definitely attacks the issue of how to top Lungs pretty well. Those moments in Lungs that gave you goosebumps, the big closing refrains in Dog Days Are Over or Drumming Song, those amazing vocal excesses that absolutely soar over the massive production... she's made an album of them. Every song could be a single, every tune an amazing testament to her incredible pipes. It's almost pointless me picking out specific songs to discuss, just randomly pick one, it'll be epic. Lead single "What The Water Gave Me" is a good start, though.

So, does that make Ceremonials a good album? Hell yes. Does it make it a great album? ...eeeeeh, sorry Flo, it kinda doesn't. See, the wall of sound backing up incredible vocal lines, wailing melodically and with amazing emotion works on a song to song basis, but 56 minutes of it and it starts to become, well, washy. By the last song it was all just waves of beautiful but indistinct noise. It's by no means bad, it's just missing something.

See, what made Lungs such a good album was the dynamics within it; you had the huge, almost operatic tracks, but then you also had Kiss With A Fist, Girl With One Eye, My Boy Builds Coffins... tracks which had space to breathe and a degree of relaxed brevity which made the bigger tracks that much bigger. Ceremonials, while still being huge, sounds less huge by comparison because everything is the same size.

I'm a big advocate of judging every album as if it was the group's debut, without the baggage of previous experience or biases, and as a standalone record, Ceremonials gets the thumbs up from me. The production cannot be faulted, the band is tight and Flo has a beautiful eye for hooks. Two beautiful eyes... and hair... and her skin is so white and smooth... I just want to stand next to her, she's so statuesque... uuuuh, back on topic. Ceremonials; excellent big production pop record. Just to clear up, Lungs is probably a stronger record, but this is more like dropping from a nine out of ten to an eight. I swore I'd never use a number system in my reviews but it's just the easiest way to express that idea. Give her a listen, just stay the fuck away from her, she's mine.