For those of you who don’t know about the band Florence and the Machine you are missing out, alas they are a band that was formed in South London by lead vocalist Florence Welch and keyboard member Summer Machine. The band debuted their first album in 2009 “Lungs” which went on to top the charts in the UK and then the charts in the US. Florence and the Machine are very hard to fit into one genre of music as they have elements of various genres, such as Indie, Folk, Alternative Rock, and Baroque Pop. Instrumentally the group consists of Florence’s voice, Machine’s keyboard, Robert Ackroyd on guitar and, Tom Monger on harp. The band has grown and developed since 2009 to present, this being represented in their four studio produced albums; “Lungs” mentioned before, then “Ceremonials” in 2011, followed by “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” in 2015, and most recently “High as Hope” this June of 2018.
Some hits you may recognize are “The Dog Day Are Over” from their first album “Lungs” which consists, like most of their music, as almost comparable to an orchestra with the building up of instruments and voice that starts off very soft and moves to big sound with drums and clapping. Eventually, at the bridge, it returns to the deceptive calm before returning back to the drums and clapping and a more vocal power and overlapping of sound and voice.
While their music can be very powerful and moving their lyrics and meaning are usually just as much. Florence goes on to analyze a wide range of subject matter from domestic violence in “Kiss With a Fist,” eating disorders and expectations of beauty in “Hunger,” childhood and nostalgia in “South London Forever,” the highs and lows of love in “What Kind of Man” or “Cosmic Love,” death and mortality in “My Boy Builds Coffins,” religion in “Seven Devils” or “St.Jude.” I started listening to Florence and the Machine when I was twelve, the reason I was so drawn to it was that they sang about deep concepts with interesting metaphors, as well as they didn’t sound like anyone else I was listening to at the time. They still don’t sound like anyone I know, nine years later and they still are my favourite band nine years later with their new music. The first song I ever heard by Florence and the Machine was “Rabbit Heart”
The newest song that I have heard by them is “Hunger.” Both songs I love, both containing the same haunting voice of Florence Welch that I fell in love with, both still making ingenious references to relate to in the lyrics, both still have a strong instrumental build up that I have a weakness for.
Florence herself and the band have branched out for experimentation outside of their comfort zone in instances such as creating songs for movies, such as; “Wish That You Were Here” for the movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, as well as “Breath of Life” for the movies Snow White and the Huntsmen Lastly their song “Spectrum” has been remixed by Calvin Harris, and Florence Welch has collaborated with other artists vocally in “Sweet Nothing” with Clavin Harris and “I Come Apart” with A$AP Rocky.
Most of you will know about Beyoncé’s visual music album “Lemonade,” which came out in 2016, the album was revolutionary in popular culture in combining music and performance to tell a story. While most artists produce videos for their top songs on their albums, hardly do they produce videos for all their songs, or follow a similar theme throughout all the videos. What you all probably aren’t as aware of is that Florence and the Machine’s album “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” was similar in regards to it being adopted into a short film by Florence Welch titled “The Odyssey,” also released in 2016. While they are two different artists and even very different women, both albums/films take you on the journey of them going through heartbreak, and the emotions that come with that, and are very much about using the performance as an outlet for these emotions and making it into a piece of art.
Recently I experienced Florence and the Machine live for the August long weekend in Montreal at Osheaga, one of North America’s biggest music festivals that featured most genres of today‘s popular music today with bands this year ranging from rap like Tyler the Creator, pop like Post Malone, alternative like Arctic Monkeys, and Electronic like Odesza. This was the first time for me seeing Florence and the Machine live, as they are a relatively famous band that when touring sticks to bigger venues like Madison Square Garden or large music festivals like Osheaga, due to this they importantly do not come to Saskatoon Saskatchewan. However, regardless of this, the experience of seeing them live is very powerful and a band that you would go see again even if you had already seen them. Florence Welch herself came into the crowd and interacts with the crowd in a way most artists do not. Even though you are surrounded by hundreds of people Florence Welch makes it feel very intimate, even insisting that people don’t go on their phones to records but rather be in the moment and just enjoy the experience.
Refrences
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/florence-the-machine-mn0002124046/biography
http://www.contactmusic.com/florence-and-the-machine
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Florence-Welch
https://www.osheaga.com/en
