Anyone who attended a school disco between the years of 2009 and 2011 will remember You've Got The Love blasting out at full volume at the end of the night to calm down all the crazy 14 year olds, high on too much coca cola and large amounts of over-enthusiastic dancing. When Welch released her debut, Lungs, there wasn't a critic out there who didn't consider the double-edged sword that such a masterpiece presented;
it was a marvel of an album, but was problematic in terms of posing the question 'so where can she go from here?' Onwards and upwards, my friends.
The beauty of HBHBHB is that it switches seamlessly between huge, confusing, anthemic organised messes like Ship To Wreck, Queen of Peace and Mother, to quieter, more considered tracks like Various Storms and Saints, St Jude and Caught. It's an album of contrasts that exaggerate and reinforce their opposites, not forcefully or clumsily, but skilfully, as though Florence is weaving a bigger picture, encouraging us to step back and look at it instead of examining the details in the individual tracks. HBHBHB takes us back to a time when music was just as much about the experience of an album as the hit songs it contained.
Not only does it present to us a wider picture, but this picture is clearly deeply personal to its painter. Lyrically, HBHBHB is moving and considerate. What Kind of Man deplores a tempestuous love affair, presenting us with Florence's insight that seems to contain the wisdom of a kung fu master as she bitterly spits 'sometimes you're half in and then you're half out/But you never close the door'. The titular track explores the excitement of a new relationship, setting in our laps such a killer opening line as 'between a crucifix and the Hollywood sign, we decided to get hurt'. In bringing her own feelings and experiences to her songwriting, Florence creates a mysticism even deeper and esoteric than tales of self-sacrifice in Rabbit Heart, or demon lovers in Howl.
Welch also seems to have grown apart from the hippy trippy persona she had been given by the media. Although she remains an ethereal being not worthy of our earthly praises, the instrumentation of her tracks has developed far beyond the odd harp and some heavy timpani. She utilises the brass section much more frequently, and even when she has the normal line-up of guitar, bass, piano, drums, she makes it work to her advantage. Take Delilah, for example. The multi-tracked vocals provide far more texture, where the strings and piano add atmosphere to the pounding drums. As the song builds and swirls, more and more instruments put in their tuppence worth to make Delilah one of the most beautiful and dance-inducing tracks on the album.
If there were doubts that Florence was up to headlining Glastonbury, this album surely proves that not only is she up to it, she surpasses all expectations. We bow before you, our ginger-haired queen.
Rating: 9/10
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