Ceremonials (Florence + The Machine)

EN “Ceremonials” is the second studio album by English indie rock band Florence + The Machine, released on October 28, 2011, by Island Records. “Ceremonials" is elegant and polished and, more than anything else, it gives us a sense that we're listening to something exquisite, using orchestral flourishes and tribal percussion as details on tracks that oscillate between pop and soul. As a producer, Paul Epworth arrived at the album full of confidence and capital due to the huge success of "Rolling in the Deep" from Adele, and this is reflected in her audaciously noisy approach to the songwriting and mastering of the album.

To publicize the album were selected 5 singles and a teaser, starting with "What the Water Gave Me", released on August 23, 2011, as a sort of sample of what would be the new sound of the album. The singer, Florence Welch, decided to give this title to the track after seeing Frida Kahlo's 1938 painting of the same name, adding that "It's a song for the water, because in music and art what I'm really interested in are the things that are overwhelming. The ocean seems to me to be nature's great overwhelmer. When I was writing this song, I was thinking a lot about all those people who've lost their lives in vain attempts to save their loved ones from drowning. It's about water in all forms and all bodies. It's about a lot of things; Virginia Woolf creeps into it, and of course Frida Kahlo, whose painfully beautiful painting gave me the title.""Shake It Out", released on September 30, 2011, as the first official single from the album, becomes one of the band's most commercially successful singles to date, being a sort of song to sing loudly in a stadium, highlighting verses of pain such as “I am done with my graceless heart/So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart''. Then it arises "No Light, No Light", the second single, was released on January 16, 2012, which is one of the few tracks that Welch leaves aside themes such as the environment, dreams, demons, angels, myths, for something a bit more personal, "Would you leave me if I told you what I'd become," one of the pieces of the beautiful bridge of the track, "‘Cause it's so easy to sing it to a crowd/ But it's so hard, my love/ To say it to you out loud." "Never Let Me Go", the third single released on March 30, 2012, is probably one of the best ballads of the project, in an indie/pop style, completed with piano and drums, while the backing vocals repeatedly sing "never let me go" throughout the song. Many critics noted similarities between the song's composition and the productions of other artists, including songs produced by Enya, Evanescence, and Ryan Tedder. The fourth single was "Spectrum (Say My Name)", released on 5 July 2012, in a remix version by Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, becoming the band's first number-one single in the UK. Finally, the fifth and final single from the album, "Lover to Lover", was released on November 30, 2012, where Florence explodes a lead vocal in gospel soul style over a phenomenal musical arrangement.

Florence seems committed in making great and majestic songs and proof of this is the whole conception of the album that refers to monumental rooms, with excellent vocals. For me, the only flaw was putting my favorite track, “Remain Nameless”, as a bonus, being a track that could be a style to explore by the band since it seems more than adequate. Other than that, I think the whole selection of singles was the most appropriate, and in my opinion, there may have been the opportunity to change the last single, thus ending the era in a great way, rather than letting it fade, given how good the album is in its entirety.

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