New obsession. Florence + the machine. I don't care what kind of music you like, you will like this. I keep trying to label the genre but its near impossible. The album swings from british 50's winehouse-ish pop to psych-goldfrappy bliss, back to fem-punk in the vein of ida maria. Amazingly it all works, and makes me very excited to see in what direction the band will go next.
The first song you should listen to is Cosmic Love, which I've conveniently linked to at the bottom, because I'm oh so kind. Its soft and yet total boss bitch. This girl has a voice on her. Balanced against the harp and summoned by booming drums, her voice is strong, crisp, and will pretty much knock you on your ass.
I've also included a link for the .torrent for the whole album. The whole thing is really a treat, so many genres but with a cohesion that is surprising. I've had this on my ipod for 4 days and don't think i've gone more than 2 waking hours without listening to it. The album opener 'Dog Days are Over' leads with a ukulele but somewhere turns into a 50's style, frantic power pop song. 'Drumming' continues this frantic, almost tormented style but almost in a way reminiscent of 90s goth girl bands.
Lyrically, the album is quite refreshing. Instead of the same out to kill men feminism we hear from Ani, or 'I'm not a feminist I'm just snarky' mood of Lily Allen, we get to see a more complex picture of a woman who can get hurt, move on, and be more enlightened for the 8 nights she spent drunk in a bar forgetting about someone. Musically, the album is also tops. Her band, 'the Machine', provides true versatility. Piano, tympanum, rock drums, electric guitar, harp, ukulele, all done to perfection.
Download. Download now. Don't make me come over there.