Florence and the machine – Lungs

£8.98 Florence and the machine debut album Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery From Amazon.co.uk

Review

Already the year’s most hyped new artist–not only first in the BBC’s famously unreliable poll of new talent & recipient of a special Brit award devised just for her–Florence Welsh has a lot to live up to, and thankfully the artfully titled & sleeved Lungs album justifies the investment. The singles are undeniably the standouts. The impressive “Dog Days Are Over”, neurotic & fierce, and the slightly more reserved follow-up “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” lead her debut album collection, sometimes overshadowing her other material. Yet the extremes of “Kiss With A Fist”, a jokey celebration of mutual domestic violence & noisy guitars that shamelessly steals its melody from the White Stripes’ charming “We Are Gonna Be Friends”, & the showstopping, almost unashamedly stagy “Girl With One Eye” show off both her development & an already instantly recognisable voice. The gallows humour of songs like “Between Two Lungs”, the daft “My Boy Builds Coffins” and the ferocious “Hurricane Drunk” where she threatens “I’m gonna drink myself to death” backed by a spirited choir of Florences, save her from accusations of self-absorption. The concluding, & hugely loud “Blinding” is all Kate Bush tics over bruising drum patterns. So a straightforward & affectionate cover of the classic Candi Staton & Source club banger “You’ve Got The Love”, previously only available online, comes as a welcome chance to get one’s breath back. Much better than an apparent plan to position her as some kind of missing link between PJ Harvey & Avril Lavigne suggested, the Lungs album is a clever, catchy set, yet unresolved enough to sustain curiosity.–Steve Jelbert

CD Description
Florence Welch, better known alongside her band as Florence And The Machine, confidently announces her arrival with the Lungs album. With several strong singles taking up a fair portion of this debut release, it’s clear that Welch is as much a pop writer as she is a left-field artist, despite the early influence of punk & grunge on her life. Musically, these influences are tempered by an admiration for soul & contemporary indie. Welch also received the Critics’ Choice award at the Brits in 2009, usually a sign of big things to come. Includes the singles “You’ve Got The Love” and “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)”.

Track List

Florence and the machine album…