“Cosmic Love,” the ninth track on Florence and the Machine’s debut, Lungs, encompasses the entire nature of the album in just about four minutes.
It begins with the sound of a harp that soon flits in and out of drumbeats. Florence Welch’s commanding vocals coexist seamlessly with the instruments. Although her voice is the album’s focal point, Lungs never explicitly becomes the Welch show.
As the title implies, the song is truly cosmic. Welch shoots for “the stars” and “the moon” and often succeeds.
That’s how the CD — originally released in the United Kingdom in July but now available in the United States — generally operates. The songs are uniformly huge and, regardless of their lyrical motives, all reach straight for the skies. Listeners won’t find an intimate girl-and-a-guitar moment here — Lungs is about the theatrics.
And what theatrics they are. The obvious example is the stunning “Girl With One Eye,” which builds and builds, quiets down and then explodes into a massive climax with Welch belting over a gospel-esque choir. There’s also the soulful album-ending ode to joy, “You’ve Got the Love,” which doubles as a chance for Welch to sing the title in varying degrees of intensity.
But as fantastic as Welch’s vocals are, the true stars of Lungs are the muscular drums, which take the driver’s seat on many of the tracks. It’s hard to imagine “Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)” without its driving, reverb-heavy drums, or “Cosmic Love” without the intense four-beat lead into its chorus.
It goes without saying, then, that when neither the drums nor Welch is given as much to do, the songs don’t work nearly as well. “My Boy Builds Coffins” falls short due to its rote lyrical imagery and lack of forward movement, even if the instrumentation itself is just as lush as the rest of the album.
Similarly, the distorted electric guitar that sets the basis for “Kiss With a Fist” mars the mood of the rest of Lungs. It also feels too much like a pre-teen girl power anthem to really be effective.
But as harmful to the album’s flow as those songs can be, Lungs as a whole overcomes those roadblocks. Welch has done something very interesting on the LP: She has combined a host of disparate influences with her distinct brand of songwriting to create an album that wears its influences proudly but is a slave to none of them.
For example, “Drumming Song” is based around a hip-hop drumbeat. “Girl With One Eye” ends in a gospel explosion. “Howl” rides a danceable synthesizer line in its chorus. “Hurricane Drunk” drifts into Natasha Bedingfield-style pop, circa 2005’s “Unwritten.”
And maybe that’s the best aspect of Lungs. Everything about the album — its uncharacteristic instruments, its distillation of influences — could be taken as off-putting, but the music is ultimately accessible. It’s thoughtful, remarkably layered pop. It shows the band is unafraid to do what it pleases but careful enough to be able to draw in audiences.
And in a top-40 market that seems so saturated with forgettable, hollow pop songs, Lungs is a welcome departure even if, at its core, it doesn’t really depart all that much.
Lungs is simply mainstream pop of the highest order.
RATING: 4 stars out of 5
jwolper@umdbk.com