Crack

6/20


The first noteworthy thing about Ceremonials is NME gave it 8/10. That’s a really fucking high mark. But not as high and wide and big and overblown as the actual record itself; that’s a full pentatonic scale smashing 10 out of 10 with the window-shattering annoyance of Florence Welch’s voice only compounded further by her actual annoyance when she describes her new album as “ravey in parts, but other parts sound like church music”. She goes on to say, “other bits are electronic and the drums are really organic.” Organic drums? Okay love. From the opening lines of the first song, Only If For A Night that go: “I had a dream about my old school,” you get the feeling you are in for some kind of pre-pubescent Kate Bush. And a damn good impression of Kate she pulls off, just minus all the genuine mystique, subtlety and curiosity, and adding instead, warbling (Spectrum), echo upon echo (Shake It Out), the mystique of being smacked round the head by a broom (What The Water Gave Me), or another massive, massive, brutal, vocal, choral, floral, Florence onslaught (Strangeness And Charm). Sure, there is no denying the girl’s got a great set of pipes, but we’d established that on the first record. What Flo and the accompanying Machine have gone for instead is ramping everything up to a level where it’s impossible not to feel like your personal space has been intruded.

- - - - - - - - - -

Words: Hulio Bourgeois