Medium: Album
Stimulus: Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials (Deluxe)
Anno: 2011
The thought that ran through my head as I listened to this amazing album was that this is the sort of music that wins Grammys and deserves them. Ceremonials is a mixture of the ambition of an orchestra, the aggression of rock, the hooks of pop, and the pipes of Florence Welch, a vocalist who could sing the phone book and make it sound like an erotic awakening. The total product is easily the best album I’ve heard this year.
In fact, it may also have the year’s best track. “What the Water Gave Me” starts as a steady pace of gloom and pieces of harp, pushing through the introductions before dropping into a hook of subterranean organs, shards of guitars, and a swelling choir that gathers its strength as the song progresses and soon explodes everything. The song’s titanic conclusion isn’t the usual bitchy distorted guitar angst that typically characterizes rock, but it’s about as powerfully rock as anything I’ve ever heard.
And still, it’s only one song in a great series. “Shake It Out” is a beaming sadjoy pop tune which carries the right sort of pretentious messianic overtones. “No Light, No Light” is run by an organ and a smashing drum pulse operating alongside words which might not have been as catching if they weren’t delivered in Welch’s towering wails. “Heartlines” is in the same percussive orchestral vein, though it has more of an esoteric beat and Welch is even more impressive at the helm. The electronic R&B of “Spectrum” swings from the subdued intensity of the verses to blasts of voice and harp. “Bedroom Hymns” closes the album with a frenzied swing rush of drums and piano while Welch does a little bit of the old erotic religion dirty talk.
There’s absolutely nothing on Ceremonials that comes within a light year of bad. The very worst thing I could say about it is that there’s a song called “Never Let Me Go” that comes off as a slow, minimalist love ballad from the 80s, which isn’t my style. If you’re into slow, minimalist love ballads from the 80s, however, this thing will spin your wheels. There are shortcomings to be found throughout the album, to be sure, but the orchestration is so tightly woven in each and every song that any weakness is compensated for with a dozen strengths.
So yeah. I severely doubt that I’m going to hear anything as good as this for a long, long while.
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