The Machine, Florence and I

Not too many contemporary artists have grabbed my attention, as of late. I've long since been out of touch with current chart music, and most of my listening seems to be cramming the forty years of music that was around before I was born.

But I have found a soft spot for Florence + the Machine. They're one of those bands who I had heard a track somewhere (probably on an advert - they're used all the time, on the BBC especially), perhaps before they had hit the big time. And then, lately, I discovered their other work...

The songs are very catchy - honestly, the only reason I got the likes of Cosmic Love out of my head was because Drumming Song replaced it. And whilst they don't all claim to be outright musical classics, the sort-of arty rocky style with nice vocals fits in with some of my other likes.

Lungs - the first album - rather feels like a collection of singles created at various stages of the band's development. The style ranges from almost acoustic, to the more typical big numbers with lots of choirs and string and drums. (ooh, get me for being technical!) As I said earlier, many of these are catchy - and those that aren't are memorable for their introspective, offbeat tone.

At the time Ceremonials was released, I was only just getting into Lungs. I listened to a couple - and apart  from the leading (and best) track No Light, No Light, they didn't really catch with me as much as the previous album. A few months down the line, though, I went back and listened to the whole album.

You can kinda see why I didn't immediately warm to it. The tone is more consistent, more grown-up - and thereby less fun, and less flashy. It's definitely an album rather than having five or six wildly divergent singles (although plenty of singles have been released - so maybe that's just me). And on first listen, they probably all sound very similar indeed.

All music is subjective, and every song, after the second or third listen, becomes a form of nostalgia and memory. Once you've listened to a track twenty times, it's hard to gauge whether you liked it in the first place. But perhaps the most important thing is that you're not bored with it - that's great! And you won't get bored with Ceremonials - it's very deep.

Most of the songs seem to either be about failed relationships, or just enjoying yourself (shot through a particularly strange prism, of course) - or an oft-quoted time when Florence Welch was underwater (see What the Water Gave Me, Blinding, Swimming, Drumming Song...). Nonetheless, there's plenty of diversity here. As to my favourites, No Light, No Light always makes something inside me do somersaults with its dynamics and drumming; and the likes of Seven Devils, Rabbit Heart, My Boy Builds Coffins and Howl are pretty odd and dark lyrically, but great to listen to. Plenty of songs stick in the mind. And particularly good are Heavy in your Arms and Strangeness and Charm from the Between Two Lungs bonus tracks - although there's some rather out of place 'remixes' on there, which seem at odds with the genre being explored in the original songs.

I haven't seen them live - but oh, I'd like to, actually. With the next album being a year or so off, whatever happens with it, whatever the style they choose to take, you can be sure it'll be personal.

That said, Kiss with a Fist leaves me cold. As a song, it's simple, fast, and a bit catchy, an early piece. But the subject material - domestic violence, basically - isn't so suitable.

(As an afterthought... another one of those bands that 'hit the big time' after I've heard a track or two would be Mumford & Sons... but I've never quite got into them. And they definitely have a repeated style! Maybe I'm lacking in love for folk music)