Florence and The Machine – Ceremonials (2011)

Florence Leontine Mary Welch came to the surface as a possible new Janis Joplin or Deborah Harry (of Blondie) back in 2009 and her debut album entitled “Lungs” was extremely appreciated by the media and the critics. But “Lungs” also was a commercial success, the album held the number-two position for its first five weeks on the UK Albums Chart and reached the top position, after being on the chart for twenty-eight consecutive weeks. The album has been in the top forty in the United Kingdom for sixty-five consecutive weeks, making it one of the best-selling albums of 2009 and 2010.
“Lungs” won the MasterCard British Album award at the 2010 BRIT Awards; at the 53rd Grammy Awards, Florence and the Machine was nominated for Best New Artist and the band performed at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
And here we go, Florence is back with her Machine to put us through the new ceremonials.

The right question is always what did you expect from some particular artist and/or album? Actually, I had no any expectation from Florence and The Machine and “Ceremonials” couldn’t disappoint me, but also, raise no interest. There are a few better songs – my favorite is “Seven Devils” -, quite professional production – the signature of Paul Epworth who’s credits include Adele, Plan B, Friendly Fires, Bloc Party, Primal Scream, The Rapture, Jack Peñate, Kate Nash and Maxïmo Park, among others -, the album were recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, but against all the visible effort, it’s quite tasteless and soul-less. It sounds like a perfect meddle of Janis Joplin with Kate Bush, a little bit of baroque pop mixed up with some indie and some soul, smoothly blended into something quite slippery and undefined. Epworth co-wrote seven tracks while several other British writers share credits on the album, including Summers, Kid Harpoon, James Ford and composer Eg White, but something doesn’t worked out good as it functioned back with “Lungs”. Success sometimes might become threat and produce damages. Maybe because of Epworth, the album reminds me of Adele as well, it has the same too polished, too carefully packed and forced media and public friendly taste and sound without leading somewhere or anywhere.

Tracklist:

01 – Only If For A Night
02 – Shake It Out
03 – What The Water Gave Me
04 – Never Let Me Go
05 – Breaking Down
06 – Lover To Lover
07 – No Light, No Light
08 – Seven Devils
09 – Heartlines
10 – Spectrum
11 – All This And Heaven Too
12 – Leave My Body

Florence and The Machine – Official Site
Florence and The Machine @ MySpace
Florence and The Machine @ Facebook

2 comments on “Florence and The Machine – Ceremonials (2011)

  1. Some may call it the second album syndrome …. Hard act to follow on the footsteps of the first…. I waited for this with some anticipation seeing the posters on my way to work everyday working themselves into my mind …. So I had some interest in listening to it …so maybe my opinion is more extreme than your… If it is odourless and colourless obviously it is for a reason… The reason here is Florence has gone corporate … This is music that can play in the corporate boardrooms receptions and at any corporate party over the Xmas period…and it so is suited for as a classy product…. Man we have musical genres but no one actually puts a name to what those genre mean… So here is my verdict this is Corproate Indie … That gets published before Christmas so you can make a killing with this crowd… I suppose they still have money and are prepared to pay for CD without to feel sorry … I felt very disappointed to see that the Machine is almost dead the bullshit producer has taken over and Florence doesnt mind along as everybody cealls her great! Still…

    • Not much left to say. I noticed some time ago that from “music business” the music has died and the business, regardless what they used to say, smells like shit. No exception. Eventually we can appreciate Kurt Cobain for quit definitely before he would go down on this road unavoidably.

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