CD: Florence + the Machine - High As Hope | reviews, news & interviews
CD: Florence + the Machine - High As Hope
CD: Florence + the Machine - High As Hope
Florence Welch takes stock and reflects on family relationships
If Florence + the Machine’s last album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful marked a break from the exuberant, anthemic pop of her first two albums, her latest disc takes things even further with a more mature and stripped-down sound that often feels one step away from dispensing with instrumentation altogether.
There may just be a reason why Florence Welch has experimented with an almost minimalist sound. As while How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful was largely a meditation on a failed relationship, High As Hope delves even further into the world of psychoanalysis, as Welch now takes on family relationships. From her grandmother’s suicide to a difficult sibling relationship and an adolescent eating disorder, it’s hardly the stuff for pop hooks. That said, High As Hope is not all doom and gloom but also dips into wistful nostalgia, as Welch revisits “art students and boys in bands” and youthful idealism in “South London Forever”. She even sings a hymn to Patti Smith in “Patricia”, which picks up the tempo somewhat although it doesn’t exactly have a fat sound.
High As Hope may mark the turning of a musical corner for Welch but whether it proves to be a brief diversion or a permanent retreat from more commercial sounds remains to be seen.
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