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Bobbysix.com was lucky enough to attend Florence + The Machine's show in Sydney recently. The above photo, by the way, was stolen (with a loving kiss) from our good friend Daniel Boud's website. Check out his work. The man is a genius. Anyway, here's our review:
A music lover witnesses countless gigs in their lifetime. Some bad, some average, some great, but only very occasionally are you able to be part of something truly special and unique. Florence + The Machine's only Australian appearance, as part of the Debit Mastercard Priceless Music series, was one such instance. The Seymour Centre was the perfect venue. With just 12 rows of seats (each holding a Venetian-style masquerade mask to be worn during the show), it was incredibly intimate and had a theatrical feel perfectly suited to the performance.
Florence Welch, resplendent and regal in a sequinned gown, glided to centre-front and opened the proceedings with Only If For A Night. Supported by three backing singers, harp, keys, guitars and two drummers, Welch wasted no time in showcasing her extraordinary vocal ability. The quiet-loud-quiet-louder-quiet-MASSIVE dynamic of her songs combined with gothic lyrics drenched in emotion left the crowd, who – due to the amphitheatre layout – were pretty much on top of her, absolutely awestruck. Tiptoeing the floor barefoot, spinning in circles and gesticulating elegantly, she performed her new album almost in its entirety, along with favourites such as Dog Days Are Over and Cosmic Love, in which the harp was beautifully precise. By the time she ended with Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) and Spectrum, the audience had long-since been on their feet.
After the two-song encore was brought to a fittingly epic end with No Light, No Light, attendees reluctantly made their way to the exit in the knowledge that they had been lucky enough to be part of something genuinely beautiful. Indeed, so magical was the atmosphere in room during this perfect occasion that to step back into the real world felt painfully mundane. This was a wonderful and unforgettable night.
This review first appeared in Sydney's Drum
Media. It was written by Bobby Townsend and edited by Heidi Pett.
Produced by Paul Epworth, Ceremonials follows Florence Welch's double-platinum debut, Lungs, and was recorded with her full band over five weeks in the English summer at Abbey Road's legendary Studio 3.
The most striking thing about Ceremonials is that, in feeling like a natural progression from the eclectic first long-player, it is also clearly more cohesive and is massive in its ambition. After opener, Only If For A Night, combines harps, big beats and layered synths with her deliciously gothic lyrics, second song, Shake It Out – which has been getting heavy radio-play – sees Welch let loose her epic vocal. The classic Florence & The Machine quiet verse/abso-bloody-lutely massive chorus dynamic is something that, just like on Lungs, is evident throughout Ceremonials. Indeed, the gospel of Lover to Lover demonstrates Welch's trademark howl at its most lung-busting and is perhaps the best example of why the singer has described this album as her “incorrigible maximalism.”
This is a huge-sounding record.
Even when things are moderately pared back, it is only a matter of time before they build into something much bigger. The piano-led opening of Never Let Me Go, for example, soon makes way for an unabashed power-ballad and is perhaps the song that is most reminiscent of her first album. Meanwhile, No Light, No Light sees Florence and her machine throw everything, including some In The Air Tonight-style drums, at the listener.
Taking the best elements of her debut and striding forward, this is a very strong sophomore record indeed. The expansive art-pop of Ceremonials exudes impressive confidence from a woman on top of her game, while retaining enough of a dark edge to keep it interesting.
Review by Bobby Townsend. It first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media.
“There have been so many bizarre moments,” flame-haired songstress Florence Welch laughs as she recalls the whirlwind that has been the last couple of years of her life. To illustrate this, she recounts her appearance at this year's Met Ball in New York. “Coming out of the Temple of Dendur with bleached eyebrows dressed as David Bowie, doing some sort of strange jig with Paul McCartney and then spinning around next to Madonna was one of those moments where it was like, 'My life has become irrevocably weird and I doubt it will ever get back to normal.'”
Indeed, from winning the Critics' Choice Award at the 2009 Brits before she had released an album, to her debut record Lungs receiving worldwide acclaim and selling by the bucket-load, to recently having been cited as an influence by none other than Beyonce, it's fair to say that things have been pretty surreal for Florence Welch since she burst onto the scene. Forever in the media spotlight and with an army of fans hungry for new material, one might think that the English singer/songwriter would have been under a huge amount of pressure to deliver the goods with her new long-player, Ceremonials. In fact, compared to her first album, the opposite was true.
“I didn't really think about it. I was just happy to be writing,” the charmingly polite and well-spoken 25-year-old explains. “The pressure I was under, writing the first record after winning that Critics' Choice Award and still being at such a raw stage, was so intense. I'd say it was almost a negative thing because it really put me under a microscope before I had anything to be protected by. People really went for how I looked or my personality because that was the only thing that was there. There was no album, and to be picked apart like that before you have any music to stand by is terrifying. It was a baptism of fire. I'm really grateful for having got that award; it was a great opportunity and it really helped me in the long-run, but at that point it was pretty hard to see the benefits because I was just freaking out the whole time. This time round, with a clearer idea of what I was doing, it was almost easier.”
Working once again with award-winning producer Paul Epworth (who also co-wrote and produced Lungs) and Isabella 'Machine' Summers (songwriter and member of the band), Welch recorded Ceremonials with her group over five weeks in the English summertime at Abbey Road's legendary Studio Three. The result certainly doesn't sound like something that was created under an especially heavy weight of expectation. “I was really lucky because I was working with some amazing people. Working with Paul and Isa, we have such such a musical connection. They had all these amazing drum patterns that I could get excited by and Paul would have these great chords. They made it easy to get back into the swing of things. We'd been speaking about it for a year and I had a really clear idea of what I wanted: big drum sounds, big bass sounds, big choral sweeps. When we got back into the studio, everyone was just excited to be there.”
To call the record 'big' is an understatement. This album is unapologetically huge. Massive. With layered instrumentation and Welch's trademark howl, it is an impressively bold and expansive second-coming. “I think you can't help being incorrigibly yourself,” she explains. “I've always been interested in big drum sounds and I'm drawn to big orchestral sounds. I'm obsessed with this choral thing. I'm interested in hymnal music and Georgian choirs. It's like heaven and hell in one.”
Aside from its enormity, the other noticeable thing about the new album is that it is much more cohesive than her debut offering. “I'm really glad you said that,” Welch beams when Drum brings up the notion that, if the excellent Lungs was an eclectic collection of songs, Ceremonials is a progression in that it sounds very well-rounded. “That's what I was aiming for. It was really important to me that it had a cohesive, overarching sound and it didn't fluctuate from one song to the next. For better or for worse, the first album was always going to be an experiment. I'd been through a lot of musical phases from the age of 17 and 22, so it was an overview of that period. This one, because it was a shorter period of time, with one producer [Paul Epworth] and one place, was more just a body of work. A story, I guess, rather than a scrapbook.”
A lengthy worldwide tour is scheduled to promote the record and, when she takes to the stage each night, there are bound to be plenty of fans drooling almost as much at her chosen outfit as they are her music. It's fair to say that Florence Welch is nearly as well-known for being a fashion icon as she is for her incredible voice, and can be seen within the pages of the monthly glossies as much as in the music press. “As a performer, what you wear is such a huge tool. It affects the way you feel and the way you move. It's like thinking of it in terms of an art piece or a dance piece.” However, her image isn't a contrivance, created by some record company executive. She has enjoyed dressing up since she was a child and, even before fashion designers were swooning over her, she put a huge amount of thought and effort into her onstage attire. “When we first started playing, we'd be given ten pounds for food and I'd spend it in a charity shop or a vintage shop and create these Frankenstein outfits: bits of feathers, lace, a red riding hood cape and glitter all over my face. So to be embraced by the world of high-fashion, for a girl who loved dressing up and was constantly in the fancy dress box, is an absolute dream.”
With her aesthetic sensibilities an extension of her natural desire to constantly be creative, Florence Welch is not the kind of person to let the dust settle and, even though her new album has only just hit the shelves, it inevitably won't be long until she begins to think about the shape that record number three will take. Feeling that she has honed her distinctive sound with Ceremonials, the question now is, where does she go next, sonically? She ponders for a moment. “I'm thinking either more orchestral or minimal... Take it as big as I can, or go small. I don't know.” She pauses, before joking, “Maybe minimal orchestral.”
Whichever musical direction Florence Welch takes in the future, if she walks the road with the confidence and gusto that she has displayed on the fantastic Ceremonials, then the world will surely remain her oyster.
Interview and live photo by Bobby Townsend. An extended version first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media. Edited by Heidi Pett.
Florence and the Machine is the name on everyone’s lips in the UK at the moment. Florence Welch - to use her real name - won the Critic’s Choice award at this year’s Brit Awards before she had even released an album, she is already a style icon as comfortable on the pages of fashion glossies as in the NME, and Lungs was recently nominated for the much-coveted Mercury Music Prize. The burning issue, of course, amid such hype and fanfare, is whether her debut long-player is actually any good.
Lungs is certainly ambitious in its indie/pop/soul sound, with piano, strings, harps, handclaps and massive drums, but it is Welch’s voice that is the most impressive instrument, jumping seamlessly from a sultry whisper to an awesome, lung-busting chorus and back again. Radio favourite, Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up), is the best example of her stunning vocal. Her delivery at the crescendo of this unapologetically grand pop anthem doesn’t so much ask for your attention as pick you up and fling you across the room. It’s thrilling stuff and indicative of the album’s multilayered barrage of sound.
Elsewhere, her voice floats over delicate harp on I’m Not Calling You a Liar, while Cosmic Love is a bit Bat For Lashes and Kiss With A Fist offers bouncy White Stripes blues. Wrapping up with a cover of The Source’s You’ve Got The Love, this album’s inventive juxtaposition of dark, gothic lyrics and rousing tunes blows away any burden of expectation with a flourish. Happily, Lungs is unquestionably worthy of the hype.
