Lungs

Florence And The Machine

Release Date: 6th Jul, 2009
Label: Island
Genre: Uncategorised

Florence and the Machine for me is the glorious sound of someone who has sat down with a piano and a drum kit having just listened to too much Tori Amos and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Florence has a strangely ethereal voice helped along by the slight echo in quieter moments of the songs and the layered choral like backing vocals. The sound is deceptive. It is simultaneously demanding and seductive. The drums are relatively simple designed for no other reason than to drive the songs. The piano adds melody in support of Florence's voice and if you listen carefully there are subtle layers an nuances in it that will slowly be uncovered as you listen more.
To follow all this Florence and the Machine could not hope for a better debut. It is simply a joy to listen to. The tracks fly by but you remember every beat of them. `Dog Days are Over' is a brilliant start and following this with the most recent single adds a nice bit familiarity. Tracks like `Howl' and `Kiss with a Fist' are then great additions before the rhythmic genius of `Drumming Song'. It then gets a little more widescreen and epic in its sound with the combination of `Between Two Lungs' and `Cosmic Love'. It then relaxes down to a more intimate and personal sound for the final three tracks which round off the whole album nicely.

Reviewed by Steve Muscutt

About The Artist

Florence And The Machine

Artist Homepage

Florence + The Machine (recording as Florence And The Machine) is the name of Florence Welch and a collaboration of other artists who provide backing music for her voice. Florence is an art college dropout from Camberwell, London, who was discovered singing Motown covers in a nightclub toilet, drunk. Musically Florence and the Machine's sound is generally referred to as soul-inspired indie rock. Welch, who grew up listening to The White Stripes and Kate Bush, says she writes metaphorical songs that are "stories with consequences and weird morality issues." She gets her material from a variety of sources and experiences. Florence And The Machine's music has received praise across the British music media, especially from the BBC who have played a large part in their rise to prominence by bringing them into the spotlight as part of BBC Introducing. At the Brit Awards 2009 Florence picked up the Critics Choice Award; a category introduced in 2008 focusing on new talent, voted for by a panel of music industry experts. The current line-up of the band consists of Robert Ackroyd (guitar), Christopher Lloyd Hayden (drums), Isabella Summers (keyboards) and Tom Monger (harp). Debut album, 'Lungs', was released in July 2009, preceded by third single, 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)'.

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20 Comments

dominicgeinosky 15 Aug 2011

Well done and thank you!
the_red_shoes 15 Aug 2011

If you go here http://www.last.fm/music/Florence+and+The+Machine/Lungs/+images you can vote down the wrong tag album cover, and vote up the real album cover. The person who's been going around changing FATM album covers is http://www.last.fm/user/picaresquezen.
the_red_shoes 15 Aug 2011

What the hell happened to the album cover?
dominicgeinosky 13 Aug 2011

Please put the picture back. When Flo first came out, way before "Lungs," she was Florence and the Machine. I didn't change it because I wanted to keep it consistent. Please, please, please! :)
MooGriffiths 04 Aug 2011

What happened to the pic?! V annoying!
thewrongguy7 06 Mar 2010

PUT THE PHOTO ALBUM BACK TAG NAZIS
kinsky 03 Feb 2010

Florence...respect.
joetayjoe 28 Jan 2010

my best album EVER
Mean2Machine 24 Jan 2010

you bitch... I cant stop listening to it...
noplacer 27 Dec 2009

Russia loves you, Florence...
Abbeyb37 26 Nov 2009

Brilliant album...
Hansophobia 29 Oct 2009

everything on this album is great
Atomowka89 25 Oct 2009

amazing!!!
volcetaceo 08 Aug 2009

cosmic loveeee
missfelix 26 Jul 2009

cosmic love, hurricane drunk, drumming song, kiss with a fist <3
rollerthing 17 Jul 2009

love this album, one of the best albuns of 2009. [2]
raphaelmaia1990 12 Jul 2009

one of the best albuns of 2009.
rahsa 10 Jul 2009

This album is amazing. Florence expresses so much emotion with her voice, and it's beautiful to hear :)
paulwmk 30 Apr 2009

:]