Florence + the Machine are back with their second full-length release. Released on Nov. 1, Ceremonials features Florence Welsh at her best, showing that she is as dark and romantic as on previously released Lungs, with a sense of album cohesiveness that was not found on the former release. Welsh successfully proves "Dog Days are Over" is not a one-hit wonder, but that she truly has staying power.
Ceremonials begins with piano and harp heavy "Only If for a Night," a song with strong Bjork influences. Unfortunately, the song grows repetitive and dragged out, making it a weak opener for the album.
"Shake it Out" is one of the best singles from Ceremonials, and for good reason. Much like her earlier hit "The Dog Days Are Over," "Shake it Out" stresses the importance of celebrating life. Welsh also sings about moving on from the past with the line "and it's hard to dance / with the devil on your back / so shake him off."
Released in August, preceding the album, "What the Water Gave Me" is the album's first released song. Here, Welsh departs from her previously uplifting mood established on "Shake it Off" to dive into topics relating to death and suicide. References to both Virginia Woolf ("pockets full of stones") and Frida Kahlo ("What the Water Gave Me" comes from the translation of Kahlo's painting "Lo Que el agua me dio") are found within the song.
Throughout Ceremonials, Welsh proves the point that she is a hopeless romantic obsessed with relationships, despite the fact that her pursuits usually ends up in heartbreak.
A motown sound can be found in "Lover to Lover". The song conjures up the sound of an early Annie Lennox mixed with a modern Adele. Welsh explores topics of sexuality, claiming that there's no salvation for her now, but "that's alright."
The second single from Ceremonials is "No Light, No Light." This song catpures Welsh at both her most desperate and poetic. She explores the subject of not loving someone enough to stay with them, but finding herself unable to tell her lover that she has stopped feeling the relationship ("but it's so hard, my love / to say it to you alone"). "No light, no light, in your bright blue eyes," she sings, with the lack of light perceived in her lover's eye portraying the actual lack of light in her own heart.
An R&B feel comes through strong in the track "Heartlines." Despite a strong refrain, at times the powerful drums muddle the chorus.
"Spectrum" continues the R&B feel from "Heartlines." In "Spectrum," love is once again explored. It brings up themes of how love makes you shine and is able to bring out your true colors and potential. As Welsh sings, "Say my name, and every color illuminates."
In "All This and Heaven Too", Welsh continues the discussion on love. To her, love is complicated and difficult to understand. She explains that "the heart is hard to translate / it has a language of its own." She ends, with the lyric, "all this heaven / never could describe / such a feeling as I'm having / Words were never / so useful so I'm screaming out / a language that I never / knew existed before," continuing her lyrical discussion of the complexities of romance.
"All This and Heaven Too" is easily the most memorable song on the album, despite its cliché girl-likes-boy story.
Ceremonials ends with "Leave My Body." In this, Welsh describes how she does not want a relationship, but instead is seeking a higher, almost metaphysical relationship through the lines "I don't want your future / I don't need your past / one bright moment / is all I ask / I'm moving on to higher grounds."
Overall, Ceremonials is a decent new release by Florence + the Machine. However, the length of the CD starts to feel a bit like a marathon. Topping out at 56 minutes, its length feels dauntingly long for an indie-pop album.
Arguably Florence + the Machine's best song to date is "Kiss With a Fist" (from the 2009 Lungs) running a little over two minutes. Welsh should have taken a hint that much can be accomplished in a short amount of time from the success of this concise song. This album's songs could have been equally powerful at a more manageable 3 minutes compared to 5. For those who are unable to commit to 56 minutes, try "Shake it Out," "Lover to Lover" and "All this and Heaven Too."
