MattFor me I tuned into BBC Radio 1 in 2008 and heard this brilliant little song called ‘Kiss With A Fist’ (which later featured on adverts and really hit it off.) A year later the album was released and this new band Florence + The Machine was a huge hit. The album ‘Lungs’ was my favorite album of 2009. Now 2 years on and the band have released their second album titled ‘Ceremonials.’ Back in August we got a little taste of what the album has to offer which was the single ‘What The Water Gave Me.’ They weren’t trying to cover our eyes they openly showed that this album isn’t going to be a replica of ‘Lungs,’ this time it’s a bit different.
‘All Heaven Has To Offer’ is a nice fast paced song to start off with but also shows that they’ve kept the nice soothing background sounds. The album has a slight RnB vibe to it with songs like ‘Lover To Lover’ and ‘No Light, No Light’ which bring huge power to the album with the banging of drums backing up Florence’s strong voice. Songs like ‘Heartlines’ and also my favorite song of the album ‘Only For A Night’ are strong representations of the album ‘Lungs’ which have been mixed in with the rest of the album, they don’t stand out in the slightest with, again, the mix of the drums.
‘Ceremonials’ has power and enchantment throughout. For a few songs like ‘Seven Devils’ there is a creepy dark element to them which puts you in the place of a movie, I felt. In fact a lot of the songs seemed like they had that movie element for an indie (straying of track a little here.) The entire album picks you up and drops you into this fascinating wonderland which is Florence’s mind (or better yet, voice.) They’ve stuck with what worked in ‘Lungs’ and turned it up to create this magnificent, compelling album. This band should achieve greatness with the album and is a front for the British music industry at the moment.
Rating: 9/10