Florence + The Machine – High As Hope

This 2018 release from Florence + The Machine really captured me – if not with quite the emotional impact of “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful,” it was still super strong, very personal – big songs with big emotions with big vocals and orchestration. Who else could do a song like “Big God”? “Hunger” is bare and heartbreaking (my heart goes out to you people with eating disorders – what a terrible burden to fight with).

While we were sitting here listening to this, my wife just said, “She does not sing happy songs.” I said, “Sometimes. But not on this album.” And “happy” wouldn’t be right, but in the midst of all the sadness and the weight she bears, there’s always some brightness, some hope. Somewhere in there, anyway. And then she closes this album with “No Choir,” which is about exactly that:

“And it’s hard to write about being happy
‘Cause, the older I get
I find that happiness is an extremely uneventful subject
And there will be no grand choirs to sing
No chorus could come in
About two people sitting doing nothing”

This is a beautiful album, and I’m afraid it fell out of my rotations as “Dance Fever” appeared and then I started getting some other Florence records on vinyl. I got this at the end of 2022, and it’s been on the new acquisitions shelf ever since, still not getting quite the play the other Florence records get. It’s perhaps slower, more contemplative than her others, the songs all sounding very much of the same theme. Even “Patricia,” which starts out faster, slides into a slower tempo. But still . . . a great record.