Album Review: Florence + The Machine - How Big How Blue How Beautiful

Honing her singing talent in her bedroom in Camberwell, in the last few years Florence Welch delightfully blossomed into one of England’s leading ladies of popular music.

Two albums into her career and dealing with an undoubtedly exhausting touring schedule Florence and her Machine receded into silence. Deciding to take a break and then reportedly crashing and burning, it was apparently Taylor Swift who helped Welch refocus and start writing about everything she was feeling. The result is this sprawling album of pop songs that speaks of heartbreaking relationships and deals out its fair share of love songs. The angsty What Kind Of Man with its confrontational video filled with men intended to represent past lovers (and yes it seems there were quite a few of them) is filled with tension.

Welch seems subdued and introspective on this album, the joyous feel-good bangers largely absent as she tries to paint herself in shades of a serious singer-songwriter. Paying tribute to St Jude, “the patron saint of lost causes”, and teaching herself to be free on Various Storms And Saints, Welch is clearly in a pensive mood, awash with conflicted emotion, seeking and yearning for something else. The arrangements are grandiose as Welch and her collaborators smother much of this album in lush orchestral moments that sparkle. The title track was inspired by the blue skies of Los Angeles and proves to be a sweet ode to the city swathed in powerful orchestral majesty. Welch’s back and on point.