General Article name: Ceremonials
Genre: Pop englischsprachig Product type: LP (Vinyl) Label: Island UK Number of tracks: 12 Tracklist LP - 1 1. Florence + the Machine - Only If for a Night 2. Florence + the Machine - Shake It Out 3. Florence + the Machine - What the Water Gave Me 4. Florence + the Machine - Never Let Me Go 5. Florence + the Machine - Breaking Down 6. Florence + the Machine - Lover to Lover   Tracklist LP - 2 7. Florence + the Machine - No Light, No Light 8. Florence + the Machine - Seven Devils 9. Florence + the Machine - Heartlines 10. Florence + the Machine - Spectrum 11. Florence + the Machine - All This and Heaven Too 12. Florence + the Machine - Leave My Body   Description Description

There’s a point just past the halfway mark on “Shake It Out,” the rousing first single from Florence + the Machine's second studio release, when the swelling guitars, organs, and strings, staccato percussion, and Florence Welch's air-raid siren of a voice lock up in a herculean battle over which one is going to launch itself into the stratosphere first. It’s a contest that plays out at least once on each of Ceremonials' immaculately produced 12 tracks. Such carefully calculated moments of rhapsody would dissolve into redundant treacle in less capable hands, but Welch does emotional bombast better than any of her contemporaries, and when she wails into the black abyss above, the listener can’t help but return the call. Bigger and bolder than 2009’s excellent Lungs, Ceremonials rolls in like fog over the Thames, doling out a heavy-handed mix of Brit-pop-infused neo-soul anthems and lush, movie trailer-ready ballads that fuse the bluesy, electro-despair of Adele with the ornate, gothic melodrama of Kate Bush and Floodland-era Sisters of Mercy. Producer Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Friendly Fires) knows that the fiercest weapon in his arsenal is Florence herself, and he stacks her vocals accordingly, creating a fevered, pagan gospel choir on “What the Water Gave Me” and “Leave My Body,” a ghostly, Phil Spector-ish chorale on the surprisingly Beatlesque “Breaking Down,” and a defiant, uplifting horde of merry pranksters on the spirited “Heartlines,” resulting in that rare sophomore outing that not only manages to avoid the slump, but bests its predecessor in the process. [An LP version was also released.] ~ James Christopher Monger

James Christopher Monger

Contributors Artist: Florence+The Machine Artist: FLORENCE & THE MACHINE Artist: Florence + the Machine Record Label: Island