Dog Days Are Over: The Florence + the Machine Discography Rate (And the winner is...)
- Thread starter Fortune
- Start date
I'm really loving this rate, I couldn't have thoguht of a nicer rate to be my first one!
F
Former member 21294
Hold me.
I gave it a 9.5 if i remember right.The part where she goes off is brilliant.
57.
Hospital Beds - 6.195
High: 10 x 1 – @AllGagaLike
Low: 3 x 1 – @Number
As promised, sorry it's a little late!
Hospital Beds is the B-side to Kiss with a Fist, the band’s debut single, meaning that it may have been one of the first things people heard from the group. It’s a cover of the Cold War Kids’s 2007 single of the same name, inspired by clinical trials and the misery of hospitals in Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms. Delightful.
Like most of the band’s covers, this was selected to bulk out setlists in the early days, but it would seem our Flo has a soft spot for it as she brought it out a handful of times last year. Being performed live as recently as 2015 is more than can be said for any of our previous eliminations, if you discount Sonnet 29.
AllGagaLike stans rampantly, “I don't know why but I adore this. Pretty catchy and comical despite the grim lyrics.” Meanwhile, Runawaywithme prepares the flowing kaftans for a midnight walk on the moors, “Hauntingly beautiful and deliciously angsty.”
Pinkieshy says “I like this one! Very Live Lounge, in a good way”. Yeah, it’s a cover that just about leans on the right side of having that bar or coffee shop feel. However, Squashua disagrees on the sound, saying they “would have loved to have heard a fully mastered version, can't rate it too high as it isn't quite there. Has a Which Witch vibe to it but obviously in Lungs mode as opposed to post-Ceremonials.” I don't know, I can't see the Which Witch comparisons, this doesn't make me sob with relief at the thought of what dark third album timeline we narrowly avoided.
constantino continues to write their thesis on the Artistic Evolution of Florence Welch, “I’ve always had love for this, even though it’s a cover, it’s still incredibly important to Florence’s development as an artist. Like ‘Are You Hurting the One You Love?’ was stage one of Florence’s ~artistic evolution~ this is more stage 2/3, where she discovers how great drums go with her voice and how powerful her sound can potentially be.” Kuhleezi also remarked upon the vocals, “Vocals alert! An okay 2-minute-long cover.”
Plethorya has made a musical discovery as a result of this cover, “This led me to Cold War Kids & for that I’m grateful.” Don’t you love it when that happens? For me, the most recent example is Same Ol’ Mistakes on Rihanna’s Anti leading me to the Tame Impala album Currents. I’d always associated Tame Impala with hipster wankery but I actually really enjoy the album. Tangent over.
However, unlike in my personal case study, where I think both versions of the same song are great, Oleander says that they “prefer the original. This version is too bare-boned, but it does have it bright spots. The guitar is nice and unlike her Addicted to Love cover, Flo is showing some conviction in her voice.”
Florence and the Cold War Kids actually performed this song together at Coachella in 2010, watch below:
And another 'doesn't Florence Welch seem like the best person ever' bonus:
Hospital Beds - 6.195
High: 10 x 1 – @AllGagaLike
Low: 3 x 1 – @Number
As promised, sorry it's a little late!
Hospital Beds is the B-side to Kiss with a Fist, the band’s debut single, meaning that it may have been one of the first things people heard from the group. It’s a cover of the Cold War Kids’s 2007 single of the same name, inspired by clinical trials and the misery of hospitals in Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms. Delightful.
Like most of the band’s covers, this was selected to bulk out setlists in the early days, but it would seem our Flo has a soft spot for it as she brought it out a handful of times last year. Being performed live as recently as 2015 is more than can be said for any of our previous eliminations, if you discount Sonnet 29.
AllGagaLike stans rampantly, “I don't know why but I adore this. Pretty catchy and comical despite the grim lyrics.” Meanwhile, Runawaywithme prepares the flowing kaftans for a midnight walk on the moors, “Hauntingly beautiful and deliciously angsty.”
Pinkieshy says “I like this one! Very Live Lounge, in a good way”. Yeah, it’s a cover that just about leans on the right side of having that bar or coffee shop feel. However, Squashua disagrees on the sound, saying they “would have loved to have heard a fully mastered version, can't rate it too high as it isn't quite there. Has a Which Witch vibe to it but obviously in Lungs mode as opposed to post-Ceremonials.” I don't know, I can't see the Which Witch comparisons, this doesn't make me sob with relief at the thought of what dark third album timeline we narrowly avoided.
constantino continues to write their thesis on the Artistic Evolution of Florence Welch, “I’ve always had love for this, even though it’s a cover, it’s still incredibly important to Florence’s development as an artist. Like ‘Are You Hurting the One You Love?’ was stage one of Florence’s ~artistic evolution~ this is more stage 2/3, where she discovers how great drums go with her voice and how powerful her sound can potentially be.” Kuhleezi also remarked upon the vocals, “Vocals alert! An okay 2-minute-long cover.”
Plethorya has made a musical discovery as a result of this cover, “This led me to Cold War Kids & for that I’m grateful.” Don’t you love it when that happens? For me, the most recent example is Same Ol’ Mistakes on Rihanna’s Anti leading me to the Tame Impala album Currents. I’d always associated Tame Impala with hipster wankery but I actually really enjoy the album. Tangent over.
However, unlike in my personal case study, where I think both versions of the same song are great, Oleander says that they “prefer the original. This version is too bare-boned, but it does have it bright spots. The guitar is nice and unlike her Addicted to Love cover, Flo is showing some conviction in her voice.”
Florence and the Cold War Kids actually performed this song together at Coachella in 2010, watch below:
And another 'doesn't Florence Welch seem like the best person ever' bonus:
Oh no - of the mostly average 'Lungs' extras, "Hospital Beds" is one of the finer moments and of my favourites of the era (nostalgia maybe...). Definitely my first sting of the rate - the rest of the losses didn't bother me at all.
Oh no! Im going to have to get the floating kaftans out for a midnight walk on the moors to get over this and ponder life's unfairness now.
Okay I know this wasn't a great result but The Maccabees are taking it a bit far splitting up over it.Midnight (Cosmo feat. Florence Welch) - 6.133
D
Deleted member 11565
Hospital Beds deserved a little longer in the rate, but it's not top tier Florence so I can't be angry it's gone.
If Heavy In Your Arms can leave soon that would be nice.
If Heavy In Your Arms can leave soon that would be nice.
56.
Breath of Life - 6.202
High: 10 x 1 – @TR
Low: 0 x 1 - @RJF
Breath of Life was written for the Snow White and the Huntsman soundtrack. Upon watching a few scenes from the film, Florence was captivated by the character of the evil queenCersei Ravenna and decided to write the song from her perspective. The track was recorded at Abbey Road studios under the supervision of the film’s composer, James Newton Howard. Seeing her composition turned into a beautiful orchestration accompanied by a 60-piece choir, Florence wept. It flopped onto the UK Singles chart at #87, thank god it wasn’t particularly successful.
It’s a bit of a blunt instrument, isn’t it? Just imagine I put the gif of Laganja saying ‘This is just too fucking much!’ here. After Ceremonials, the last thing she needed to do was go even bigger. I feel like there might be the bones of a good song being choked out by the unnecessary bombast somewhere deep down, but she abandoned this in 2012 so it looks like we’ll never know. All the elements together are just far too grand for their own good.
This is one of TR’s favourites, “I like that it's written from the perspective of the Queen. Her songs work well as a soundtrack to fantasy epics, I hope she will do more in the future.” constantino is right there stanning alongside, “WAIT at the choir. WAIT at the harmonized vocals. WAIT at the theatrics slaying me once again. This is TOO GOOD to be a mere bonus track.” Runawaywithme is a fellow acolyte of their religion of loud, “I love the opening of the song with the choirs and the big drums, and I like how it gets faster as the song goes on and reaches that operatic climax, Florence’s voice is like always incredible in this song.”
How many of you felt personally victimised by Kristen Stewart? Plethorya says that the song is “better than that whole movie”. Jam echoes this, “I enjoy this very much as a standalone soundtrack song, the only good thing to come out of that movie.” And for the hat trick, here’s Squashua, “It’s absolutely phoned in on Florence’s end (as was the film by everyone but Charlize Theron) but the Attack on Titan choirs were nice, I guess. No more than average.” I wouldn’t know about the film, I didn’t go to see it because I’m not a masochist. Did Chris Hemsworth get a topless scene? Am I thinking of the right film?
2014 says that it’s “a bit one note, it sounds too much like a song for a movie if that makes sense? Not much substance”. It kind of feels like Flo was given a memo saying ‘We loved Ceremonials, just do all that again for our faux-Gothic film IN ONE SONG’, doesn’t it? Kuhleezi calls it “Seven Devils on steroids. Not that that's such a great compliment, though, since it's too grand for its own good. Maybe the only time I feel Flo has gone too far? Can't deny the OoOooOOooooOoooooh chanting though.” If you love Gregorian chanting so much, why don’t you just marry it?
Oleander feels that “there's too much going on and the song suffers greatly because of it”. Pinkieshy assesses it as being “Not great, not terrible. Just a bit meh.” Sprockrooster calls it an “average Florence + the Machine song”.
Push has an interesting reference point, “The repetition of the verses irks me. Curiously this feels like something you'd hear on a Tomb Raider soundtrack.” You mean the games, right, not the Jolie films? I guess I can hear it, maybe, if you stripped Florence’s vocals it would sound like a ridiculous boss theme for that or some JRPG.
It got a video which is just some film clips stitched together with some shots of Florence recording in the studio, and the orchestra and choir doing orchestral choir things. The film doesn't look any better four years later.
Breath of Life - 6.202
High: 10 x 1 – @TR
Low: 0 x 1 - @RJF
Breath of Life was written for the Snow White and the Huntsman soundtrack. Upon watching a few scenes from the film, Florence was captivated by the character of the evil queen
It’s a bit of a blunt instrument, isn’t it? Just imagine I put the gif of Laganja saying ‘This is just too fucking much!’ here. After Ceremonials, the last thing she needed to do was go even bigger. I feel like there might be the bones of a good song being choked out by the unnecessary bombast somewhere deep down, but she abandoned this in 2012 so it looks like we’ll never know. All the elements together are just far too grand for their own good.
This is one of TR’s favourites, “I like that it's written from the perspective of the Queen. Her songs work well as a soundtrack to fantasy epics, I hope she will do more in the future.” constantino is right there stanning alongside, “WAIT at the choir. WAIT at the harmonized vocals. WAIT at the theatrics slaying me once again. This is TOO GOOD to be a mere bonus track.” Runawaywithme is a fellow acolyte of their religion of loud, “I love the opening of the song with the choirs and the big drums, and I like how it gets faster as the song goes on and reaches that operatic climax, Florence’s voice is like always incredible in this song.”
How many of you felt personally victimised by Kristen Stewart? Plethorya says that the song is “better than that whole movie”. Jam echoes this, “I enjoy this very much as a standalone soundtrack song, the only good thing to come out of that movie.” And for the hat trick, here’s Squashua, “It’s absolutely phoned in on Florence’s end (as was the film by everyone but Charlize Theron) but the Attack on Titan choirs were nice, I guess. No more than average.” I wouldn’t know about the film, I didn’t go to see it because I’m not a masochist. Did Chris Hemsworth get a topless scene? Am I thinking of the right film?
2014 says that it’s “a bit one note, it sounds too much like a song for a movie if that makes sense? Not much substance”. It kind of feels like Flo was given a memo saying ‘We loved Ceremonials, just do all that again for our faux-Gothic film IN ONE SONG’, doesn’t it? Kuhleezi calls it “Seven Devils on steroids. Not that that's such a great compliment, though, since it's too grand for its own good. Maybe the only time I feel Flo has gone too far? Can't deny the OoOooOOooooOoooooh chanting though.” If you love Gregorian chanting so much, why don’t you just marry it?
Oleander feels that “there's too much going on and the song suffers greatly because of it”. Pinkieshy assesses it as being “Not great, not terrible. Just a bit meh.” Sprockrooster calls it an “average Florence + the Machine song”.
Push has an interesting reference point, “The repetition of the verses irks me. Curiously this feels like something you'd hear on a Tomb Raider soundtrack.” You mean the games, right, not the Jolie films? I guess I can hear it, maybe, if you stripped Florence’s vocals it would sound like a ridiculous boss theme for that or some JRPG.
It got a video which is just some film clips stitched together with some shots of Florence recording in the studio, and the orchestra and choir doing orchestral choir things. The film doesn't look any better four years later.
