Florence + The Machine
Ceremonials

Two years have passed since the wonderful voice of Florence Welch first echoed through the dreamy forests of her debut album, that splendid "Lungs" which forcefully captured the attention of the world’s critics. During this time, the anticipation for many had become visceral. Her first work was a perfect synthesis of genres, a clockwork mechanism in front of which one would end up being enchanted despite its small imperfections, and therefore the possible musical evolution that the red-haired singer had to face was a mathematical mystery to which no one could give the correct equation.

The currents that wanted her to be a bold experimenter and those that instead required her to be conservative and coherent enough to give continuity to her debut album clashed head-on. Listening to this "Ceremonials" in the end, the mix of sensations that the notes and musical fabrics make you feel under your skin allows the response that you face to be closer to the second of these possible realities, despite the almost complete banishment of the joyful and dreamy atmospheres that characterized the first two lead singles of her previous work, the stunning “The Dog Days Are Over” and the bewitching and sensual “Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up).”

"Ceremonials" is indeed the supreme sum of all that darker and more gothic trend that was present in a slightly sweetened manner in "Lungs," and here finds a less arduous path through which to express itself, thanks to the strongly orchestral structure at the base of each individual track. If Florence previously immersed us mainly in airy indie-rock atmospheres more or less hidden among whispers of different musical currents, here it is the intertwining of strings and organs that dominate along with the often gothic, solemn, mystical, and melancholic atmospheres. And if small influences made by Kate Bush already resonated previously, they now come across as intentional tributes perfectly consistent with the direction in which the entire production of this talented girl seems to be moving, who, in the end, does not even refrain sporadically from slightly winking towards the Icelandic Elf.

A perfect example of these hasty considerations is “No Light, No Light,” the undisputed gem of the album and so far the latest single extracted, a track of desperate plea that creates before me the magnificent spectacle of the waves crashing against the rocky walls of cliffs, on stormy nights near enchanted woods. But there are also the spectral and haunting notes of “Seven Devils,” a litany with gothic choirs that transports towards profane temples in which to witness sacred pagan rites, the twilight “Never Let me Go,” the enveloping soul of “Lover to Lover,” and the small rock flashes of “What The Water Gave Me” or the drums’ stride in the excellent “Heartlines.” Even the lead single “Shake it Out,” despite coming closer than the other tracks to the recently passed past, strongly diverges for the melancholy that shines through the tone of the Red-haired. However, what pulls the strings of this absolutely admirable work is always the splendid voice of twenty-five-year-old Florence, who dances on tiptoe on any base she is presented with, eclectic, sensual, and powerful, gently plucking the listeners’ emotional strings in the same incisive manner in which the harps’ strings resonate among the soundscapes of this little gem, which presents the maiden with compositions decidedly more articulated and complex to tackle compared to the past, both for pathos and technique, and which tend to blossom into epic peaks before which the only possible reaction is to let oneself be enveloped.

And if musically the stylistic maturation is absolutely evident despite the almost total absence of bold experiments, on the lyrics front one finds themselves facing verses decidedly more mature and complex compared to those already widely appreciated in Lungs, with continuous references to water and its mysterious mystical significance, to death, to rebirth, and to pain. A pain that pervades this little masterpiece like a freezing wind on stormy nights... a fierce wind resonating with the echoes of Florence’s suffering and enchanting song...