Florence + the Machine Review: Am I a Machinehead?

Florence + the Machine

Ceremonials

I would never classify Lungs, Florence Welch’s highly successful debut album, as lighter fare for the standard music listener.  But when paired against Ceremonials, Welch’s debut album sounds like The Beach Boys, when they exclusively sang about cruising for chicks on the beach in fast cars.  In other words, Ceremonials is one of the most unexpectedly heavy albums of the year.  It’s not so much that the lyrics are filled with weighty emotion, but more that the album sounds like it was recorded in a medieval cathedral buried 1000 feet beneath the earth.  The single strike of a piano key seems to echo indefinitely, while organs echo from track to track and the harp for the first time manages to sound foreboding.