Florence + The Machine - High as Hope

Florence + The Machine: High As Hope

One thing I've noticed about the truly great singers is their ability to appear huge. I don't mean physically or mentally large, but emotionally gigantic with vocals that can add height to a room with just their voice. You know the type, the vocals that can either make you feel lost in a sea of sweat and mob exhilaration or make you feel so very alone in a crowd as if the singer is speaking to you and you alone. This indelible quality has been afforded to very few in the past century: Freddie Mercury had it. Adele and Paloma Faith both have it. Florence Welch has it, and she's taking it to places never seen before, combining her modern-day Stevie Nicks-ness with the primal, elemental fury that she and her band have become known for. Their newest endeavour ‘High as Hope’ features some of the most personal and furious songs yet, proving that Welch is once again the leading figurehead against what The Guardians describes as ‘The New Boring.’ Stripped back, personal and aching, Florence and the machine show no signs of slowing down in their cosmic rock domination. Welch herself is credited as a producer for the first time, displaying a more personal and hands-on vibe to an album that practically sweat introspection. 

Lead single Hunger opens with the lyrics “At 17 I started to starve myself…” immediately setting the tone for what will be a painful and brutally honest album. Stripped back vocals, a simple percussion beat, vibrant combinations of strings and piano and Welch’s signature clawing lyrics produce a foot-stomping anthem for fans. True to her form, Welch is like a banshee with her relentlessness, while lyrics such as “you make a fool of death with your beauty…” and “I thought love was in the drugs, but the more I took, the more it took away…” see her flip from being your own personal gospel therapist to exposing herself like an open wound, raw and defenceless. Then later, with Big God, we see a definitive shift. “You need a Big God, Big enough to hold your love…Big enough to fill you up…” Welch practically snarls. The deep, atmospheric piano brought resemblance to an Eminem beat, laden with darkness and malice. Welch varies from heartbroken, to malevolent, to introspective as Welch admonishes an unknown character for the pain they have inflicted upon her. Growing from a slow, hypnotic anger to a triumphant arrangement, all hyperbolic trumpets and furious synths, it is easily the strongest song of the bunch.

Welch and her band continue to impress, pushing past even their own far stretched boundaries, setting new highs in the brand of emotional indie pop that they themselves created. Another strong showing in High as Hope only serves to solidify their status as groundbreakers and hip shakers.




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