The band "Florence and The Machine" emerged on the music scene, commercially speaking, in 2010 when their debut album "Lungs" was on the list of promises in the main media, such as the BBC and the Pitchfork portal. With the singles "You got the Love" and "Dog days are over", the band definitely conquered their space in the mainstream pop market and became mandatory at all festivals.
Artists would get a definitive boost by participating in the "BBC Introducing" program. Vocalist Florence's singles became part of the "TOP 10" in the United Kingdom and several European countries. It didn't take long for the sound of the machines to reach Brazil. However, in Brazil, Florence and The Machine are still considered an "underground" band, despite being on the soundtrack of films such as "Sex and the City" and "Eclipse".
In Europe, the band is a favorite of the gay community and has played at several events aimed at the LGBT community, this is due to the great success of the video "You got the Love", which takes place inside a gay nightclub. In the space of two years, the band gained thousands of fans and admirers within the specialized critics. Thus, the classic question was born: will "Florence" maintain such quality on its second album?
The official release of "Ceremonials", the successor to "Lungs", is scheduled for November. But, in times of the internet, there are rare albums that remain secret until their scheduled release by the record company. Therefore, Florence's new work is now available online.
Produced by Paul Epworth, "Ceremonials" does not present a new sound for Florence, but even within the same, the successor to "Lungs" is superior in terms of arrangements and continuity. The impression we have is that we are listening to a great tragedy divided into 16 acts. Anyone waiting for singles along the lines of "Dogs days are over" and "You got the Love" can forget it. In this work, the band is more concerned with dealing with their demons than letting them out. In other words, we are faced with a sound that is more introspective than expansive.
However, before the entire work was released online, the band itself released the single "What the Watter Gave Me", a song in which Florence pays tribute to Virginia Woolf and Frida Kahlo. In the clip, the singer appears dressed in the clothes that the honorees used to wear and says that she wants to "lie down and listen to the sound of the water with her pockets full of stones", just like Virginia Wolf did when she killed herself. The tribute to the English writer is also printed on the cover of the new album.
In "Shake it out", Florence screams that she is tired of dancing with the devil and, despite being screwed, she is going to get rid of him and bury a love that makes her suffer so much. Basically, this is the entire tone of the album: torn love, loneliness, sadness, but always with an air of transformation and never resignation.
In addition to the two released singles, "Ceremonials" is the type of work that makes it difficult to highlight songs. The band had the genius of building a cohesive work, as if each song was an integral part of the one that ends and the one that begins. Therefore, we are not going to mention this or that song, but rather leave it to the reader to choose their favorites. What we can say is that we are facing one of the best, if not the best, album released in 2011.
