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Florence + The Machine, High As Hope

Florence + The Machine, High As Hope


Florence Welsh’s voice rings out loud and clear on her band’s most direct and, ultimately, most inspired album since her debut. While Ceremonials ensorcelled her in gothic 80s melodrama and How Big, How Blue’s production dilluted her intensity, High As Hope brings Florence’s roar back to the fore. It soars, about as passionately and prominently as it did on Lungs. Some of these songs are softer and more reflective, but even here the singer still resonates to the rafters. It’s good timing for her voice to take center stage again; the newly sober Welsh has plenty to say as she struggles with faith and doubt, wrestles with the demons of the day, and claims a hard-won optimism as compelling as her ocean-sized voice. Highlights: “Patricia,” “Hunger,” “100 Years”

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