Having
scored big with her indie-baroque debut and majestic sophomore album, Florence +
The Machine’s latest effort sits smack bang in the middle of both, but doesn’t
quite have the impact of either.
Florence Welch is, and has been for some
time, the premier female voice of indie chart rock; a swaying English rose churning
out fine pop gems. I saw Flo+Machine (as I will refer to them from here on in)
perform at Alexandra Palace last September. I can recall her energy as she
leapt across the stage, the power of her voice throughout the show, and how every
performance was a corker.
Being promoted on that tour, was
Flo+Machine’s latest release, How Big, How
Blue, How Beautiful, coming nearly four years after the incredible Ceremonials. During this time Florence
took time to breathe and stave off a mental breakdown, while reassessing her
songcrafting skills in the process. We are supposedly led to believe this
latest offering is the finest fruit from this hiatus, and it’s actually rather
convincing. There are some cracking tracks on this record, melodic and full of
drama.
Understandably for How Big, Flo+Machine didn’t want to repeat past sonic successes,
and so did away with the orchestra and production which characterised Ceremonials. Perhaps Ms. Welch has been listening to Björk's 'Volta' at the time - there are strings aplenty, but the main band is stripped down and this time around the
defining musical “feature” on the album is the presence of a full brass band. Featuring in the majority of the 11 tracks, its a bold
yet strangely warming sound which imbues the songs with a touch of
regality. It’s the perfect setting
for Ms. Welch’s vocal warm ups, progressing from breathy low croaks to
histrionic wails.
My pick of the songs is ‘Queen of Peace’, a
honking, epic stomper with a wonderful chorus hook – it compels you to sing
along even if you don’t know the words (and I still don’t after many listens to
be honest). ‘Ship To Wreck’ is a
refreshing opener, a reminder to listeners of the energy that you’ve missed
from this band for the last four years. The title track is one of the lengthier
cuts, but justified by a triptych of beautiful phases: keyboards and vocals to
start, then the drums and band kick in only to breakdown halfway through,
leaving the brass and orchestra to belt out the chord progression to fade out. Lead
single ‘What Kind Of Man’ has a catchy clap-along feel not completely
dissimilar to something past stable mates The Tings Tings might have churned
out in their heyday, but this is a harsh comparison since the song is actually
quite good. My only complaint is that the song only really takes off after
nearly a minute of build up, which I deem is too long for most – this will come
on in the car and I’ll say “What IS this?” and skip it.
This brings me to some of the weaker points
of How Big. The winding ‘Various
Storms & Saints’ is, like its title somewhat vague and despite being
redeemed by Ms. Welch’s glottal shrieks, its still a bit too meandering for my
liking. I’ve also noticed that roughly
halfway through each Flo+Machine album is a token wallowy, mid-tempo track. On Lungs it was ‘Between Two Lungs’, on Ceremonials it was ‘Breaking Down’ and
for How Big its ‘Caught’. These are
not awful songs per se, but they’re just so dowdy and throwaway you simply sigh
and move on to the next track.
The latter half of the album is a mixed bag.
‘Third Eye’ has a catchy backing vocal hook borrowed from an 80’s pop hit (I’m
still trying to think which one!). ‘St Jude’ refers to the “Patron Saint of
lost causes”, though not entirely sure of the relevance here. The album closer
‘Mother’ is quite lovely, harking back to early 70s classic rock (I’m thinking
Roxy Music and Pink Floyd) with it’s funky bassline, swirling guitars and
hypnotic drumbeats.
What you’re left with however, by the time
the album finishes, is the question of whether what you’ve listened through was
consistent enough to be enduring, and sadly it’s not quite there. I think the main issue here is the
spacing of the tracks: Lungs had a
large scattering of good tracks evenly spaced throughout the album, and How Big is a bit like Lungs but less carefully balanced. The better songs are bunched at the
beginning, and a couple of highlights see the album out, but the middle section
of record is unmemorable. It’s still a good effort, but after Ceremonials, which was an exceptionally
strong set of songs, I feel myself plumping for that every time.
7/10
