Florence and the Machine - A Lot of Love, A Lot of Blood [EP]

Island

May 31, 2009, 04:13 PM

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I think I'm officially in love with Florence Welch's voice. It has all of Dolores O'Riordan's (from the Cranberries) springy cathartic yelps and is anchored by a rooted, penetrating intensity reminiscent of Heartless Bastards' Erika Wennerstrom. In 2008, Flourence and the Machine enthralled music lovers everywhere with their debut single, "Kiss With A Fist": a fast and loose chase of tongue-in-cheek lines which dives into a all-out indie-garage roll; the feeling is like driving a car blindfolded, with an unfastened seat belt and a foot on the accelerator pedal.

Writing songs that tell "stories with consequences and weird morality issues", Welch's inclination for metaphorical song crafting is evident even sonically in A Lot of Love, A Lot of Blood; the most promising of the lot is "Dog Days Are Over" - the juxtaposing interplay of heavy, pounding drumbeats against light, twinkling pluck-work is dabbled with brushstrokes of Welch's kinetic treble. This spills over to "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)", enjoying more of that mystical harp work and pulling in the some loose pop reins from "You've Got the Love", it serves as the perfect intermediary for the next track.

"You've Got the Love", one of two singles released this year, is a standard pop number that does something in a non-standard fashion - it isn't afraid of looking at its simplistic melodic hooks and accepting it with a touch of lyrical honesty and contemplative imprint.

Their attempt at the Cold War Kid's cover, "Hospital Beds", exemplifies acoustic bar/pub goodness: one that fully underscores the strength of Welch's pipes which gashes through the lo-fi mist of minimal orchestration and the effect is intimate and inescapable. You can almost picture her singing in an acoustic session, surrounded by a flood of light in room filled with dusky cigarette-mist and all you need is a few shots of liquor and a bowl of chips.

Armed with two newly released singles, "You've Got the Love" and "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)", and an EP A Lot of Love, A Lot of Blood, Flourence and the Machine are gearing up for their upcoming full-length album entitled Lungs out on 6th July. I'm counting down the days already!

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