horsys67: Florence And The Machine Return With 'Enormous' Ceremonials

Monday, October 31, 2011

Florence And The Machine Return With 'Enormous' Ceremonials

Songs on sophomore album 'all came out quite big,' Florence Welch admits.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Rya Backer

Florence Welch
Photo: MTV News

Florence Welch circled the globe in support of Lungs, the breakout debut that transformed her from an unknown Brit into an internationally famous performer, a fashion icon and a rather unwilling superstar.

Of course, along the way, she also managed to pick up a few souvenirs.

"I have some chainmail at home; it's a good look," she laughed. "We got a sword as well, when we were in Glasgow once. There was a sign in a store that said 'Sword Sale, 30 Percent Off.' How could you resist? It was a sale."

We mention all that not because the image of Welch clutching a broadsword is sort of amazing, but to point out the whirlwind two years that followed Lungs' release — and the fact that they were actually tame in comparison to the four years that preceded it. Welch recorded her debut whenever — and wherever — she could, working with a handful of different producers in fits and starts. The reason was largely economic, of course, a problem she didn't face with the follow-up, Ceremonials, out in the U.S. on Tuesday. So when she finally wrapped up promotion behind her first album, she knew exactly where she wanted to record her new one — and who she wanted to do it with.

"The first album, what I learned, for better or for worse, it was done over from the ages of 17-22, with a couple of different producers. Some of it was recorded in an old swimming pool, some of it was recorded in a synagogue — it kind of was all over the place," Welch told MTV News. "And that made it the record it is, but for this one, I was very clear in the idea that I had of wanting to make something that sounded like a whole; so it had to be one producer, one place, one period of time to make it a body of work."

Produced entirely by Paul Epworth (whose work on Adele's 21 is probably playing on a radio near you right now), Welch and the Machine crafted an album that, though all over the place lyrically, is unified by one common theme: an all-encompassing, soul-engorging enormity — one that's large enough to give even Welch pause.

"They're all pretty big," she laughed. "They all came out quite big. I was slightly worried, because I was like, 'All the sounds are enormous on this record.' "

Will you check out Florence's sophomore album? Let us know in the comments!

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