THE REST OF: Florence + The Machine

Florence Welch, the idiosyncratic feminist icon; the woman full of happiness, glitter and magic. She is far from the ideally formed pop stars that have been formed for the record labels; she is her own structured self – she is something mysterious and different; she can transform from the angsty art student (Lungs, 2009)– the dramatic character of a glitter-donned Joan of Arc (Ceremonials, 2011) and the 70’s Stevie Nicks flared jeans persona (How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, 2015).

Florence + The Machine were unsubtly formed in a garage in South London where two teenagers thought of an idea, unaware that it would create the hysteriait has. Florence Welch and best friend Isa Summers came up with the name Florence + The Machine based on their names (Robot/Isa Machine). Florence states, “[it] started off as a private joke that got out of hand. I made music with my friend, who we called Isabella Machine, to which I was Florence Robot…before realising that name was so long it’d drive me mad”.

Some of their first gigs donned the simplistic schoolgirl image where they created a vulnerable look and sung eerie tracks such as ‘My Boy Builds Coffins’ and ‘Girl with One Eye’. These tracks were created for the early Florence + The Machine, the eerie and melancholic tracks whip back and forth and create something which hadn’t been heard for a while; the tracks scream Kate Bush.

‘Strangeness and Charm’ can be found on the deluxe edition bonus tracks of Ceremonials – the track is poetry; Edgar Allen Poe would be proud of the lyrics that had been blasted into the memorising track, “It’s the purest element but it’s so volatile/An equation heaven sent, a drug for angels” (Oh Flo, we love you so).

Florence, after the release of Ceremonials and being in the midst of touring the world and struggling with her own demons,hit her all time high with a catalytic cover. For MTV Unplugged (2012) Florence covered the classic Otis Redding track, ‘Try a Little Tenderness’. The classic track is a perfect transcript for all those heartbroken and in the midst of falling in love. Florence turned it into something galactically imperial, with the wavering tenderness to her voice at the beginning and the blasts of serious tone during the hyper emotional chorus. This is the most perfect rendition of the track since the original and seriously, it could climax through generations.

After the creation of the new image, the almost pre-Raphaelite painting has come to life (this being created perhaps from her mother’s Renaissance love). Heard on the deluxe edition of How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, the track that sounds stunning is the demo ‘Which Witch’. This track is something which is stunningly stand-out, perhaps not her most well-known tracks but definitely one of the most beautiful from the rest of her work.

Daisy Scott