Florence + the Machine

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Florence Welch, minus her machine

Florence + the Machine is the work of British singer/songwriter Florence Welch, with 'the machine' being her (rotating) backing group, though the name originally referred to her original collaborator (and current keyboardist for her backing group) Isabella Summers when the group was "Florence Robot/Isa Machine" to be shortened to its current moniker. After her debut album Lungs made number one in the United Kingdom (six months after release, and repeatedly), she became one of 2009's frontrunners in a burst of popular, powerful female pop music. Her second album, Ceremonials, switched tacks abruptly and took the world by storm in a burst of overpowering soul music.

Welch is known for quite macabre lyrics — "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" was her reaction to being asked to make an upbeat record for marketability! — love-or-hate performances and haunting vocals.

They contributed the song "Heavy In Your Arms" to the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack. Also performed a song for Snow White and the Huntsman. In 2018, they contributed the song "Jenny of Oldstones" to the Game of Thrones episode "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms"

They released a single, "Light of Love", in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and as a fundraiser for the UK's Intensive Care Society.

Discography:
  • Lungs (2009)
  • Ceremonials (2011)
  • How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015)
  • High as Hope (2018)
Florence + the Machine provides examples of the following tropes:

My own secret ceremonials

    • And in "Between Two Lungs":

"Between two lungs it was released
A breathe that passed from you to me"

    • And in "I'm Not Calling You a Liar":

"There's a ghost in my lungs / and it sighs in my sleep"

I opened my mouth to scream and shout,
 I waved my arms and flapped about.
 But I couldn't scream and I couldn't shout,
 I couldn't scream and I couldn't shout.

  • Anti-Love Song: Take your pick:
    • "Blinding", "Kiss With a Fist", "Leave My Body" are three examples
    • "Heavy In Your Arms".

I love you never felt like any blessing

She tolds me not to step on the cracks / I told her not to fuss, and relax
 Pretty little thing stopped me in my tracks / And now she sleeps with one eye open

I'm going to drink myself to death

    • What The Water Gave Me alludes to Virginia Woolf's suicide.

I'll let the water take me

  • Early Installment Weirdness: Because of a change in her sound to the one she became famous with, the indie rock-esque "Kiss with a Fist" has become this. The recording that appears on Lungs is almost identical (or is) to the one that appeared on her 2008 debut single.
  • Echoing Acoustics: Lots of reverb is used in the tracks "Never Let Me Go" and "Leave My Body".
  • Everything Is an Instrument:
    • "Are You Hurting the One You Love" features drumming on pots and pans.
    • Apparently the next album will use the sounds of their instruments burning- they caught fire where they were being kept.
    • The alternative version of "Girl With One Eye" is called the "Bayou Percussion Version" and has the sound of breaking glass at the end.
  • Eye Scream:
    • "Girl With One Eye."
    • The video for "Cosmic Love" has a ball of light float to Florence. It hits her in the eyes and she screams. When she opens them, her eyes are sparkling, like stars.
    • Which is quite interesting because in the song she states that the star made her blind:

A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes
 I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind

"I'd written all these dark songs, and the label suggested we should have something that was a bit more upbeat. In the process of trying to do that, I realised maybe I was sacrificing something. So I had a really upbeat piano and drums, but the lyrics that came out were 'This is the gift/It comes with a price/ Who is the lamb/And who is the knife?' The rabbit heart is a reference to fear. I'm so afraid of what's about to happen. Of being in the spotlight."

    • Lampshaded at the live shows where she says 'Find someone you love and sacrifice them"
    • Their possible second obsession besides The Ophelia. Sacrifice and exorcism are often mentioned in their works.
  • Kill It with Fire: "Seven Devils"

and no rivers and no lakes, can put the fire out
I'm going to raise the stakes,
I'm gonna smoke you out...

  • I Am the Band:
    • Before her backing band settled down to a more or less stable lineup, The band was (and probably still is) basically "Florence, and whatever backing musicians are on hand at the time" - sometimes it was members of the Test Icicles or Noah and the Whale or maybe her some of her musician friends or sometimes lucky concert goers.
    • Originally she performed with an actual drum machine for backing.
  • Incredibly Long Note: "No Light, No Light", at the end of the bridge, which is usually replicated live with a combination of circular breathing and modifying the microphone.
  • Intercourse with You: "Bedroom Hymns", "Strangeness and Charm".
  • Leave No Witnesses: "Bird Song":

I picked up the bird and above the din, I said "That's the last song you'll ever sing"
 Held him down, broke his neck, taught him a lesson he wouldn't forget.

  • Lyrical Cold Open: "Kiss with a Fist", "I'm Not Calling You a Liar", "Cosmic Love", "Falling", "Addicted to Love", "Bird Song", and "Shake it Out".
  • Lyrical Dissonance:
    • "Hurricane Drunk", which is a delightfully happy song. The first lines of the chorus are "I'm going out/I'm gonna drink myself to death."
    • Florence said "Dog Days Are Over" is about being destructively happy, and the lyrics strongly imply that whoever the song is about is trying to avoid this happiness.

"Struck from a great height/By someone who should have known better than that?"

    • Florence Lampshaded this when she explained how "Rabbit Heart" came to be.

I’d written all these dark songs, and the label suggested we should have something that was a bit more upbeat. In the process of trying to do that, I realised maybe I was sacrificing something. So I had a really upbeat piano and drums, but the lyrics that came out were, ‘This is the gift/It comes with a price/ Who is the lamb/And who is the knife?

    • In "Ceremonials", "Breaking Down" has an upbeat rhythm, yet its lyrics implies insanity on the subject's part.
      • Further stated verbatim in the Track By Track in regards to this song.
    • "Lover To Lover" describes the subject metaphorically descending to Hell, while having an uplifting soul vibe.
    • "Kiss With a Fist" has an 80's rock tone, with lyrics describing a couple violently in love, to the point many critics thought the song was about domestic abuse.
      • On the other hand, the original version of "Kiss With a Fist", called "Happy Fist", was faster and more maniac. In the middle of the song, Florence is clearly fighting back laughter, further adding to the overly happy yet quite violent song.
    • An earlier version of "Swimming" had more of an indie rock tone, while the final version averts this.
  • Masochism Tango: "Kiss With A Fist": "You hit me once, I hit you back / You gave a kick, I gave a slap / You smashed a plate over my head, then I set fire to our bed".
  • Masquerade Ball: The music video for "Shake it Out" takes place during a 1920s masked ball, complete with masks.
  • Murder Ballad: "Heavy In Your Arms" seems to be from the perspective of a woman whose boyfriend drowned her in a river.
  • Non-Appearing Title: "Drumming Song", "Cosmic Love", "Blinding", "Bird Song".
  • Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: Or "Chamber pop goth stomp, crossed with a choir of nuns being thrown down the stairs" in Florence's own words!
  • The Ophelia: This seems to be invoked and more than a few lyrics refer to drowning.
  • Obsession Song: "Dog Days Are Over", "Drumming Song", "Remain Nameless".
  • Overly Long Name: Florence Leontine Mary Welch.
  • Precision F-Strike: in her Track By Track she calls "Lover to Lover" a "Fuck You"-like song.
  • Pimped-Out Cape: While singing "Shake It Out" on The X Factor, Florence wore a dress with six white capes held in place. She didn't move around a lot.
  • Record Producer: Paul Epworth (probably best known for Florence's own "Cosmic Love", "Howl", "Rabbit Heart", and "Blinding" from Lungs as well as Adele's "Rolling in the Deep") produced the entirety of Ceremonials.
  • Repurposed Pop Song: "Dog Days Are Over".
    • "Howl" has also been repurposed for a car commercial, of all things.
  • Rerelease the Song: "Dog Days Are Over".
  • Refrain From Assuming: "Spectrum" is the real title of that song. It is not called "Say My Name" no matter what urges the song gives you to say it is that.
    • The Calvin Harris remix of "Spectrum" is called "Spectrum (Say My Name)".
  • Rewatch Bonus: "Spectrum" music video has some lighting and other shots and a story which are slipped in and not essentially obvious first time round.
  • Rearrange the Song: The live version of "What The Water Gave Me" features elements of the released demo. There's also an added Epic Instrumental Opener, sometimes adding a full minute to songs already over 5 minutes.
  • Sanity Slippage Song: "Drumming Song", "What The Water Gave Me", "Dog Days Are Over", "Hurricane Drunk", "Seven Devils", "Kiss With A Fist", "Breaking Down", "Lover To Lover", "Bird Song", "Falling", and "Swimming".
    • Subverted with "Leave My Body" which is about her wanting to lose her mind in her own singing and music in general.
  • Say My Name: Spectrum; Up to Eleven.
  • Self-Backing Vocalist:
    • On many of the tracks on her albums, Welch is one of the backing vocalists. In a few cases, she is the only backing vocalist and her voice has been overdubbed to create a chorus of one....eg "Leave My Body".
    • An earlier case is in "Rabbit Heart". Word of God claims that the person who mixed the chorus had a nervous breakdown.
  • Signature Song: "Dog Days are Over" and "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)"
  • She's Got Legs: as evidenced by the video for "Drumming Song".
  • Shout-Out:
    • In "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" she uses a line that was originally in a Gang Gang Dance song-

How quickly the glamour fades

"Pockets full of stones."

Something something Up, Tear the walls
 Something something Heart something something Soul
 something something enough, something something eagle
 something something soar...

  • Statuesque Stunner: Almost six feet tall, and displays it quite well.
  • Silly Love Songs: "All This and Heaven Too", "Spectrum", "Between Two Lungs".
  • Singing Voice Dissonance: She whispers softly soprano when she talks, but her voice is extremely powerful and a deep strong alto.
  • Surreal Music Video: There's a few of them.
    • The original "Dog Days Are Over" video.
    • The 2010 version of "Dog Days Are Over" retains the surrealism with a New Age vibe.
  • The Stars Are Going Out: In "Cosmic Love": "The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out."
  • Stalker with a Crush/Obsession Song: Remain Nameless, and that insane devotion they are known for.
  • Subdued Section: The bridge of "Dog Days Are Over" and "Cosmic Love".
  • Talking to the Dead: Florence explained that the song "Only If For a Night" is about talking to her dead grandmother in a dream.
  • Tranquil Fury: "Seven Devils" could be seen as being about this, the soft but slightly creepy musical structure and threatening lyrics indicate this.

I had to blow, your kingdom down
I'm going to raise the stakes, I'm gonna smoke you out
It's a battle cry

  • Title-Only Chorus: "Howl" and "You've Got The Love".
  • Terrible Ticking:
    • There's a drumming noise inside my head, and it starts when you're around...
    • And in my dreams began to creep that all familiar "tweet, tweet, tweet..."
  • Three Minutes of Writhing:
    • The video for "You've Got The Love".
    • And also "Drumming Song".
  • Unplugged Version: Their Unplugged MTV sessions
  • Updated Rerelease: "Lungs" was re-released and updated with a 12-track additional disk and linear notes in late 2010.
  • Voodoo Doll: The man in the music video for "No Light, No Light" uses one on Florence, making her jerk around on top of a skyscraper before falling off.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic:
    • It's easy to misconstrue her lyrics to having religious themes, as she often refers to Heaven, Hell, the devil and angels.
    • "Drumming Song" is chock-full of sexual imagery, and religious imagery. The video even takes place in a church, and there's a case to be made that the backup dancers are angels. Or devils. Or just hallucinations.
    • Bedroom Hymns
    • The performance of "Shake It Out" on The X Factor used lots of religious imagery, from Florence's dress to the background to a gospel choir.
    • The music video for "No Light, No Light" takes it farther than "Drumming Song", using Christian, Voodoo, and Illuminati imagery.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Florence dons a suit in the original "Dog Days are Over" video.
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: The title of "Strangeness and Charm" is already a play on words. However, in the pre-chorus:

Atom oh atom, oh what's the matter with me, love?

  • Younger Than They Look: She was born in 1986, but looks like she was born in 1976; it's a bit difficult for some people to wrap their head around.
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