Florence and The Machine
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

We first met her as a young and indomitable flower child in 2009, only to find her a couple of years later in the solemn garb of a modern Pre-Raphaelite lady, obsessed with water and all its metaphorical and philosophical meanings. It seems, therefore, almost obligatory that the new album by the band led by Florence Welch opens with a song titled "Ship to Wreck," an ideal bridge between the previous "Ceremonials" and the more recent "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful."

The connections to the past, both sonic and conceptual, however, end here: putting away the aforementioned ceremonials and setting aside, at least for now, thoughts on death and, indeed, water, the songs also shed much of the elements that characterized the band's sound until now, as well as the lyrics, which are much more personal and concrete than before (though biblical-religious references abound), very close to those of a classic break-up album... which "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" indeed is, in some ways, and the first thing to reflect its nature are precisely the arrangements, lean and never pompous even when orchestration and horns are used, new additions to the ranks of the Machine, and for the first time devoid of the ever-present harp. Much less imposing, especially compared to "Ceremonials," are the percussion, here never intrusive and closer to the blues and rock of the seventies-eighties than to the indie-folk of their beginnings. To put it bluntly, there’s more R.E.M. and Stevie Nicks and less Kate Bush, even in the vocal delivery, which sees a more intimate and vulnerable Florence than ever modulating her mannerisms and titanic power in favor of pure and simple interpretation, going so far as to engage in a couple of ballads with almost minimal accompaniment ("Various Storms & Saints," with only electric guitar and backing vocals supporting a sublime and heartfelt performance, and the almost whispered "St. Jude," supported by a light electronic drum machine). A huge step forward has been made in the overall quality of the pieces, much better distributed than in the past, with the result that the album as a whole is enjoyable and not just the singles: there are indeed no fillers or minor songs, all have their own importance and are equally enjoyable, from the driving (and unexpectedly radio-friendly) baroque pop of "Queen of Peace" and the title track to the subdued "Long & Lost," from "Delilah" with its rhythmic plays to the gritty blues of the concluding "Mother"; it’s also worth noting how all are characterized by an underlying consistency in terms of sounds and arrangements, which occasionally was lacking in both "Lungs" and "Ceremonials."

"How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" thus presents itself as the band's most honest and heartfelt record, which once again invents nothing but proves to be devilishly good at what it does, expressing this time a potential that previously seemed held back and distancing itself just enough from the formula that brought them to prominence. A solid, cohesive, and well-crafted pop album as rarely heard, which has no pretension other than to be listened to. And it achieves this magnificently.