Florence returns with her second film soundtrack song, this time for Snow White and the Huntsman, directed by new director Rupert Sanders. Judging from the trailers, the blend of medieval drums, soaring classical strings and choir-boosted, operatic vocals seems very fitting to such a dramatic retelling of the classic fairy tale. Truth be told, the film looks slick, expensive, and maybe quite dark, but it doesn’t really appeal. (Mainly because the rather wooden Kristen Stewart is in it but that’s beside the point, and I’m willing to have my mind changed on that, anyway.) Ever since news broke of the song about two months ago, and a snippet of it was released, it became almost fabled in its mystery for hard-core FATM fans. (The other ‘Holy Grail’ being ‘Paper Massacre’, a half-finished song heard on one of the ‘in the studio’ videos from the ‘Lungs’ album.)
‘Breath of Life’ is no change from Flo’s recent epic pop, and for those who aren’t into the heightened emotion and imagery in her music, this won’t make any new fans. This song is huge in its scope. The true meaning of an ‘epic’. But there is no doubting that her voice works well with the huge choir, trumpets and fraught strings. There’s also no doubting that the song sounds like a film score, especially with that choir, the soundtrack to a huge battle scene, with vocal resemblance to ‘Heavy In Your Arms’- her other soundtrack offering.
Fit for purpose then, and in fitting with the darker elements of ‘Ceremonials’, but here’s hoping that this doesn’t define Florence And The Machine’s future direction too much as the quieter, less layered moments on ‘Ceremonials’ are what make such tension and emotion bearable for a whole album. Still, a huge and musically accomplished piece, and for the fans, one of the ‘Holy Grail’s reached.
Listen to the track here via FATM Army.
Holly Read-Challen
Writing this review without getting emotional is going to be difficult for me; when I first heard Ceremonials, half of me wanted to break into some sort of interpretive dance, and the other half wanted to curl up under a duvet in the foetal position and cry my little heart out because Florence and her Machine have created such an emotional roller-coaster, such a masterpiece. (Indeed, I did in fact do one of these, but I shall leave that to you to decide which one won.)
We got the first, proper, studio-recorded taste of Florence And The Machine's new material a few months ago, with What The Water Gave Me, a festival-ready track with a sing along chorus about drowning (of course!). Then we had the first official single, Shake It Out, a jubilant 'hangover cure' with a seriously beautiful Gatsby indebted video. And now finally, finally, finally, after two years and almost continuous teasers, we have the full 12 properly-recorded, studio-fresh, shiny new tracks.
Ceremonials is a bigger, more cohesive record than debut Lungs, however this doesn't mean that our Florence has lost any of her beguiling strangeness or charm. From the first Christmassy harp echoes, along with Flo's little echoing giggle at the start of opener Only If For A Night, to the manipulated sound of the tour bus on second single No Light, No Light to the bird calls at the start of Heartlines, this album contains so many of the little quirky details, even on first listen, that drew many to Florence and co in the first place. And then there’s the lyrics; Florence, never one for understatement and not afraid of metaphor and melodramatics, is famous- nay, infamous for her dark song writing. It’s what makes her formula work. Without her fixation on dark themes, her songs may start to grate, or be too saccharine pop.
Ceremonials certainly doesn’t disappoint in this department. Along with literary references- homages to Frida Khalo and Virginia Woolf on What The Water Gave Me- the album if full to bursting with lyrics about drowning and death, Florence herself describing it as ‘apocolypto-pop…[the] soundtrack to the end of the world!’
Only If For A Night was written about an encounter with the ghost of Florence’s Grandmother in a dream: ‘It was oh so strange/ And it’s so surreal/ That a ghost should be so practical’. There’s also a theme of religion, most prevalent on the spooky-sounding Seven Devils, (which fits in so perfectly with the UK release date of Halloween); ‘Holy water/ Cannot help me now’ along, of course with death; ‘See I was dead when I woke up this morning/ And I’ll be dead before the day is done’. The soulful Lover To Lover also concentrates on religion: ‘There’s no salvation for me now/ No space among the clouds’. Throughout the album it feels like a battle between wanting that ‘space among the clouds’ and coming to terms with the idea of knowing you can’t have it: ‘moving up to higher ground…/ But history keeps pulling me down’ (on David Byrne-esque Leave My Body). Waltz-like Breaking Down once again seems to describe Florence’s sleep paralysis, seen on Lungs on I’m Not Calling You A Liar: ‘All alone/ On the edge of sleep/ My old familiar friend/ Comes and lies down next to me’.
But of course, any review of Florence and the Machine cannot go without a mention of that voice. Boosted by ‘apocalyptic choir’ backing vocals and rolling, tribal drums, Florence’s voice inspires such incredible, enchanting emotion: the vocal on Spectrum, for example, is epiphany-causing material. A stand out track for me is Never Let Me Go; along with simply beautiful lyrics such as ‘looking up from underneath/ Fractured moonlight on the sea’, the chorus has heart-stoppingly stunning notes, especially the line ‘in the arms of the ocean’. Her voice shows such development and prowess, and just when you are recovering from one emotional high, she hits you with another, making Ceremonials such an experience. A simply wonderful album.
9/10
By Holly Read-Challen
