This will not be a long review as I was pretty underwhelmed by Florence and the Machine’s latest album “Everbody Scream”, although I did like the rhyming theme to it( Florence and the Machine, Everybody Scream, Released on Halloween). Rather than being a record that’s enjoyable, it’s a more important one. Why? Because the momentum is light, but the atmosphere is heavy. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t affect Florence Welch’s vocals, because as always, they sound incredible. Despite the grandiose sound with the cathedral-sized intensity that every song wells up to, it starts becoming a bit boring. There are no real highs or lows or contrast, which just leaves an ethereal fog of emotion throughout
The lyricism is quite disappointing,too. Something that Florence usually excels at finding the balance of poetic and primal, feels too self-absorbed. They are too reflective, with little variation. I found that I was always waiting for something more like a beat drop, a hook, or something far-out, which unfortunately never materialised.
Although I do have some song recommendations, because I did find the choir (I think that’s what I meant)sections quite angelic, and the wonderful instruments like the harp, I found most of the record boring. Yes, the album is beautiful and bright with colour, but it becomes a bit too much. Your attention starts to waver after a few tracks. My analogy for it would be that the ground is white with snow, but instead of admiring its beauty, you want to go outside and enjoy it before it melts.
Song recommendations: ‘Sympathy Magic’, ‘You Can Have it All’, ‘Everybody Scream’
I recall telling you all that I was impressed with their previous album, “Blue Weekend”, which was released four years ago. As we all know, that is a long time in music; therefore, it is easier to be yesterday’s news. However, the period between “Blue Weekend” and “The Clearing” has seen them remain fresh and avoid the block, and they have certainly been working hard to make something special.
Markus Dravs was the producer last time, and this time they have employed another top producer, Greg Kurstin, and dare I say it, but he has bettered what Markus did. We have frontwoman Ellie Rowsell’s soul laid bare in songwriting and fantastic vocals with profound instrumentation. This record, much like “Blue Weekend”, is more autobiographical regarding Ellie, where she delves into her life experiences with utmost honesty.
Wolf Alice have never shied away from exploring new sounds despite them being heavily pigeon-holed in the indie punk category. There are new layers with every song you hear. Even though the band have been together for going fifteen years, the chemistry is still there, and it appears they are tighter than ever.
The opener ’Thorns’ shows their intent. Ellie confesses to being a narcissist and a masochist on this storm-cloud ballad. Quite a surprise to hear her say that. You would never have her down as a narcissist. We then have the confidence of the lead single,’ Bloom, Baby, Bloom,’ featuring a drum and bass element. We then have a track called ‘Just Two Girls’, which celebrates friendship between two females. The intimacy of this friendship is so palpable that it will resonate with the listener, evoking a deep connection.
However, it’s moments like ‘Leaning Against the Wall’ that capture the meaning behind Ellie’s lyricism and just an acoustic guitar on the folk track to drive the point home. Another one that highlights Ellie’s words is ‘Play It Out, which is a highly emotional piano ballad that will certainly move the listener. It addresses Ellie opting not to have children, but maybe as she grows old, she might repent at leisure.
Yes, the album has quite a bit of introspection, but it never becomes overly introspective. We have rock-pop energy in ’Safe in the World’, ‘Bread, Butter, Tea, Sugar’, and ‘Passenger Seat’to lighten the mood. It showcases the band’s ability to transition seamlessly from raw energy to introspection.
The end has two tracks that are in each of the spectrum: ‘White Horses’ offers the energy, and my favourite track ‘The Sofa’ sees Ellie reflect on her life and what she desires over tender instrumentation that is quite dreamy. It is indeed a track that took me by surprise when I heard it on Later…with Jools Holland, in the spring, because it is nothing like I have ever heard them do before.
You will hear several influences, including Florence and the Machine (Markus is known to produce for them), The Beatles, the late Sinéad O’Connor, Portishead, and, dare I say it, Taylor Swift. Having said that, Wolf Alice still maintains their identity. What the band have achieved on this record is how the emotion increases track after track, leaving the listener feeling the impact. Of course, the album is not complete without Ellie’s unmistakable vocals that range from intimate and soul-bearing to the power we hear on the high-energy tracks.
“The Clearing” showcases the band at their most confident, fearlessly displaying raw emotion and delivering tracks that are destined to be timeless. The album’s frank honesty, although it may be slower-paced than their usual style, is refreshing and showcases their versatility. I am certain that this record will receive several accolades shortly.
Song recommendations: ‘The Sofa’, ’Safe in the World’, ‘White Horses’
Once again, this is another cliché. I found this band via Later…with Jools Holland, where they performed ‘Nothing Matters’ and ‘ My Lady of Mercy’. From there, I scoured YouTube, looking for information about them. I came across a review of one of their tracks, plus a little background on them by The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins. He does a review show on there called Justin Hawkins Rides Again. It has become so popular that he is taking it out on the road. I was highly impressed with his knowledge of every tone in the track. He also mentioned that the band are rumoured to be “industry plants”. Now, if they are, who cares? You can tell they are highly talented, so they would inevitably break through regardless. This rumour is circulating because the band had minimal performances before being signed. Skunk Anansie must have been “industry plants” if that’s the case. They were signed after four gigs. That’s how ridiculous this rumour is for me. I am sure Skunk Anansie was in the right place at the right time. The other suspicions are that they also signed to the prestigious Island Records, have over 30 million streams for ‘Nothing Matters’ on Spotify, and have had this album produced by James Ford, who has recently worked with Blur, Kylie Minogue, and Arctic Monkeys on their current records.
So, a little background on the band: They are from London. An all-female rock band (I beg to differ on rock.)consisting of Abigail Morris (Leading vocalist), Lizzie Mayland (Backing vocalist, guitarist, flautist), Emily Roberts (Guitarist, backing vocalist, flautist, mandolin), Georgia Davies (Bassist, backing vocalist), and Aurora Nishevci (Backing vocalist, organist, synthesiser, conductor, string arranger). I believe they also met at university, which is another reason people are suspicious of their rise. Fuck knows what that has to do with it. I like the name of the album, and I found the cover art quite eye-catching. The name might have a negative impact because it mentions a specific substance that also has taken its name from a form of joy. As everyone knows, I detest preludes/interludes, but there was a certain magic to them this time. There are two interludes. The title track and ‘Gjuha’, with the latter coming in just after the halfway point. Both tracks feature incredible vocal harmonies over what can only be described as booming classical music. From the reading, there is no clear indication that an orchestra was used, but it sounded like one in the prelude/interlude. You must admire the sheer audacity of using such music when this album was released in the mainstream. From this, you can tell that the ladies do not want to conform.
The band reminds me of a cross between Florence and the Machine and Elastica. Because of their sound, but also, Abigail sounds similar to Justine Frischmann. Talking of Abigail, her best vocal performance is ‘On Your Side’. However, that doesn’t take away from the other tracks. She is an outstanding vocalist.
The highlight has to be ‘Caesar on a TV Screen’. It changes throughout with different genres and tempos. Quite a lot of the tracks stop suddenly, but after half a minute, they come back in with frantic tempos, usually classical or a stabbing piano. The title of the record is quite apt. There are many moments of ecstasy. I was left highly impressed. It is pretty hard to believe that this is only a debut album.
Song recommendations: ‘Caesar on a TV Screen’, ‘On Your Side’, ‘My Lady of Mercy’
Florence and the Machine started as a duo in 2007, with Florence Welch on vocals and Isabella Summers on keyboards. They were initially called Florence Robot/Isa Machine before changing the name to Florence is a Machine before their first gig. Eventually, they settled on Florence and the Machine and turned it into a band rather than a duo.
However, most mistaken the band as Florence’s solo project as the group bears her name. It would help if they said it sounds like a duo because Isabella is “the Machine”. I have heard many accounts where “the Machine” has been mistaken for Florence’s backing band. I first heard Florence and the Machine via a friend’s iTunes playlist in late 2008. I had never heard of the band, and he had ‘Rabbit Heart(Raise it up)’ on this playlist. I was instantly impressed with Florence’s vocal range on the track. Alas, I was disappointed with Florence’s live vocals when I saw them live at Glastonbury, iTunes, Oxygen, and Reading/Leeds that year. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the music, but those notes she hit on ‘Rabbit Heart(Raise it up)’ were far from what I heard on the studio version.
I don’t intend to make this a long review for their latest album, “Dance Fever”, because I am not sold on it. Plenty of the tracks have long intros or outros, making me think they plan on doing another short film as they did for their 2015 record “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful”. I prefer that album to this. “Dance Fever” was made over the past two years during lockdown. From what I gathered, the record focuses on mental health, and Florence details it like talking to a therapist. This isn’t my reason for not liking it. The intros and outros were far too long.
The production is tame to what you have come to have known Florence and the Machine for. The production is split between Jack Antonoff and Dave Bayley. It is hard to write about one song because they seem to crash into each other. I enjoyed the bonus disc that featured four songs off the standard version acoustically and a track called ‘Search and Destroy’, which for me was the best track of the entire album, but it is a cover of the Stooges song.
Song recommendations: ‘Search and Destroy’, ‘Cassandra’, ‘Free’
My introduction to Wolf Alice was either in 2013 or 2014 on Later…with Jools Holland, and their punk attitude with a hardrock sound caught my ear. My favourite track of theirs at the time was ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’ (It still is funnily enough. I love the energy oozing out of it.)I can’t recall if they played that one on Later or if I heard it live at a festival, which made me fall in love with that track. Then, in 2018, they released “Visions of a Life”, which featured such tracks as ‘Beautifully Unconventional'(My favourite off of that record) and ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’. They would receive a Hyundai Mercury Prize nomination in a strong field that featured the likes of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds 2017 and third album “Who Built the Moon?”. The judges who voted chose “Visions of a Life” as their Hyundai Mercury Prize winner in 2018.
Ellie sang beautifully that Sunday night as they performed ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’. Could Wolf Alice follow up on their Hyundai Mercury Prize-winning album? Some have failed, like the Klaxons and Gomez. The band had their work cut out this time to meet expectations.
However, Wolf Alice accepted the challenge of bettering “Visions of a Life” by employing the services of Markus Dravs, the man responsible for helping Arcade Fire redevelop their sonic outputs as well as Florence and the Machine. Many called this a bold move by Wolf Alice and a surefire signal of their intent; it proved just how brave they were to take a risk on this album and take them another step closer to more accolades.
What is brilliant about this album, and with such a great producer as Markus Dravs on board, is that the album becomes eclectic. If you are trying to understand what that means (Of course, the connoisseurs can sit this part out.), the album in question doesn’t just stick to one or two particular genres but visits a multitude of genres. Some might argue that this is a dangerous precedent; for example, Paul Weller’s “Fat Pop Volume 1” was released last month. Somehave criticised that record for being too schizophrenic with how it utilises several genres, but that makes a great album to me. Yes, of course, it is also lovelyto listen to a record locked on one or two genres, but the beauty of an eclectic album is your ear doesn’t know what to expect next (Well, on the first listen, at least.),so I applaud Wolf Alice for going in this direction. In the next paragraph, I will describe the various bands/artists I heard within the record.
Funnily enough, I contacted Ellie Rowsell on Twitter as I got to the final track and gave her my thoughts on “Blue Weekend”. I told her I found it dreamy and could hear the XX, My Morning Jacket, Lana Del Rey, Amyl and the Sniffers, Keane and the Temper Trap. That’s how vast sonically the album is. You have tracks such as ‘Play the Greatest Hits’, full-on punk, and you can hear Amyl and the Sniffers there. I mean, literally. If someone listened to this on a blank CD or sent you an untitled file, you would think it was an Amyl and the Sniffers track. ‘How Can I Make it OK’ is a rock ballad, then ‘No Hard Feelings’ is out of the Keane catalogue with its melchanolic sound, lyrics, and keys that TimRice-Oxley is synonymous with. The opening track,’the Beach’, is very dreamy and something the XX would do. The track makesyou visualise being on a beach as the waves crash gently upon the shore.
‘Delicious Things’ has to be one of the standout momentsbecause it is autobiographical to Ellie Rowsell’s life. In this, she addresses suffering social anxiety and being homesick while in Los Angeles, sleeping with a shady character who only seems attracted to her because of her status as the bandleader and taking drugs when others around her in Tinseltown are. Ellie describes the LA experience to the last detail with utter accuracy.
‘Smile’ is just Ellie telling you what she thinks of your views if you don’t like hers, and she does as she pleases. ‘Play the Greatest Hits’ will sound great live, too, with its full-on punk energy. This one will be great for the tour whenever permitted to commence.
‘No Hard Feelings’ brings the energy levels down on this break-up song with Ellie’s soft vocals, which has an excellent reference to the late Amy Winehouse by including her song title within the lyrics.
‘the Last Man on Earth’ is where the production of Markus Dravs starts to pay off. The track builds slowly from what appears to be a piano ballad but then builds to a grander sound as it progresses. It’s another track that will sound great when the album istaken out on the road.
“Blue Weekend” is a brilliant record with several genres packed into just over 40 minutes of listening. It’s the kind of album you won’t just listen to once or twice but the kind you will want to hear repeatedly. It may be a departure from previous material, but this is their best art to date. As the record ends on the dreamy ‘the Beach II’,your mind starts to wonder whether they will once again receive a Hyundai Mercury Prize nomination because this album is up there with “Visions of a Life”, if not even better. However, the record aims higher than just a Hyundai Mercury Prize. Look out for “Blue Weekend” at several highly regarded music award ceremonies within the following year.
Song recommendations: ‘Delicious Things’, ‘No Hard Feelings’, ‘Play the Greatest Hits’
Honest Opinions 