Lungs - Florence + The Machine

Florence & The Machine - Lungs

The first time I saw Florence and The Machine was on Jools Holland in September and whilst being impressed with the songs that were performed on the show I never took that first experience any further. Luckily for me, as it turns out, Jools Holland invited her back to play in the New Year Hootenanny show and this brought her back to my attention. So a good 7 months after the album was released I have now taken my head out of the sand and discovered Florence & The Machine.

The first thing to say is that the album is a wonderful mixture of styles during which you may catch a bit of KT Tunstall, Duffy,Kate Bush, Jeff Buckley, Texas, Cranberries, White Stripes, Lilly Allen and Kate Nash amongst others. Sometimes like in Kiss With A Fist you will find contrasting styles sitting side to side with some unexpectedly good results.

What you don't get with Florence are nice happy lovey type songs but you will find songs that are full of death and violence. When you read the lyrics you realise this isn't going to be a cheery but the presentation of the songs will have you singing along to topics such as setting a bed alight, drinking yourself to death and gouging out girls eyes. When questioned about this by the NME, Welch responded: “Well, what other subject is there? I remember realising that my parents were going to die and weeping. Weeping as if my father had actually died.”. My Boy Builds Coffins is a wonderfully simple song that will have in in one hand having you embrace its daftness whilst in the other also have you being reminded that the one thing in common for everyone is death! Maybe we should play that to all world leaders.

Whilst Florence and the Machine is undoubtedly a Florence Welch vehicle it wouldn't be the album it is without the wonderful arrangements on the songs. The harp being particularly noticeable on some of the tracks along with the orchestraal arrangements, drums and backing vocals.

All in all I'd say that Florence has delivered an excellent debut album which whilst being on the pop side of rock delivers plenty to keep the rock fans happy. It will be interesting to see how Florence follows up this album and if she tries to lighten up her lyrics or keep them nicely dark which complements the generally uplifting music to great effect.


Track listing - Click here to listen to preview of all tracks

1. Dog Days Are Over 4:12
2. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) 3:52
3. I'm Not Calling You A Liar 3:05
4. Howl 3:34
5. Kiss With A Fist 2:04
6. Girl With One Eye 3:38
7. Drumming Song 3:43
8. Between Two Lungs 4:09
9. Cosmic Love 4:15
10. My Boy Builds Coffins 2:56
11. Hurricane Drunk 3:13
12. Blinding 4:40
13. You've Got The Love 2:48


Length: 46:13

Rating: 4/5

F - Bomb Rating: 0

Style: indie rock, pop rock