Arts & Life, Music

How raw, how real, how beautiful: Honesty and letting go prevail in Florence and the Machine’s new album

Florence Welch, of London group Florence and the Machine, strips bare for their third studio album “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.”

After trudging through an up and down relationship during the band’s three-and-a-half-year break, Welch decided to create her most honest work to date, leaving behind the large, ethereal sounds that Florence and Machine fans have come to know and love.

But this is better.

“How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful,” named for the Los Angeles skyline, was produced by Markus Dravs who has previously worked with Depeche Mode, Coldplay and Arcade Fire.

The album fans alike, peaking at number one upon its release in seven countries, including Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland.

The 11-track, Welch-written confessional begins with the upbeat tale of “Ship to Wreck”. The song takes you through a dream-like fantasy where Welch sings of wrestling with sharks, Killer Whales and “red-eyed mice”.

“Ship to Wreck” is the second installment in Welch’s dance-inducing music video trilogy, which began with the second and best song on the album “What Kind of Man”.

“What Kind of Man” is a breakup anthem. The driving guitar riffs from Robert Ackroyd makes this the perfect song to scream-sing while driving in traffic, the first tune you work out to and the song blasting in your head when you’re thinking about your ex.

“To let me dangle at a cruel angle/where my feet can’t touch the floor,” Welch half-sings half-yells. “Sometimes you’re half in and then you’re half out/but you never close the door.”

As a counterbalance, choir-like backing vocals from percussionist Christopher Lloyd, bassist Mark Saunders and “the Machine” Isabella Summers provide a hymn-like solace for the heartbroken.

“How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” ends with a calm climax. Listeners won’t finish this compilation wide-eyed and out of breathe, but rather on their knees with their arms in the air.

Welch, with her honest lungs and powerful soul, take us through the bitter journey of heartbreak; at its most painful, letting all of the anger, confusion and need crash against her lyrics like a cymbal.

With tones from Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” Interpol’s “Turn on the Bright Lights” and Aretha Franklin’s “Lady Soul,” “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” will stab you in all the right places and have you begging for more.

“How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful”

STARS: 4 out of 5

RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2015

LABEL: Universal Music

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