Album review: Florence And The Machine, Ceremonials

WHEN it came to making her second album, Florence Welch decided she would strive to create a bigger, even better version of her first. After all, Lungs won numerous awards, and she retained that record’s producer, Paul Epworth, to write and work on Ceremonials.

Her big, bludgeoning voice continues turning it up to 11 whenever the chance presents itself, but such power is undermined by the lack of a real emotional connection.

The closest she gets is the Thames Estuary Delta Blues of Leave My Body, and the Eg White co-write, What The Water Gave Me. Otherwise it is business as usual, the suburban gothic sound characterising the songs, from opener Only If For A Night to the often bitter end.

If Flo floats your boat then nothing here is going to change that, but there is something terribly incidental about it all.

Nothing to surprise or stop you dead in your tracks with jaw dropped to the floor. Hence Shake It Out can burble on about darkest hours being before dawn, then surge into a chorus that would not be out of place in Eurovision. The new look is two parts F Scott Fitzgerald, one part Joan As Policewoman, the new music less interesting, being less than the sum of her obvious influences.

RELEASE OF THE WEEK

FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE

Ceremonials

***

Island, £12.99

Download this: What The Water Gave Me, Spectrum