|
08/22/09 Pukkelpop Kiewit
Discography
08/23/09 Lowlands Festival Netherlands 08/28/09 Reading Festival Reading 08/30/09 Leeds Festival Leeds 09/06/09 Electric Picnic, Co. Laois 09/11/09 Bestival - Wight 09/13/09 Freedom Festival (Free Admission) Hull 09/17/09 O2 Academy Bristol 09/18/09 O2 Academy Bournemouth 09/20/09 O2 Academy Birmingham 09/21/09 O2 Academy Leeds 09/22/09 ABC Glasgow 09/24/09 O2 Academy Newcastle 09/25/09 Academy Manchester 09/27/09 O2 Shepherds Bush Empire London 09/28/09 O2 Shepherds Bush Empire London 09/29/09 O2 Shepherds Bush Empire London 10/05/09 Logo Hamburg 10/06/09 Luxor Cologne 10/07/09 Botanique Orangerie Brussels 10/08/09 Melkweg Amsterdam 10/10/09 Parkteatret Oslo 10/11/09 Vega Copenhagen 10/12/09 Frannz Club Berlin 10/14/09 Flex Vienna 10/15/09 59 To 1 Munich 10/16/09 Magazzini Generale Milan 10/17/09 Mascotte Zurich 11/06/09 Inrockuptibles Festival, Aeronef Lille 11/07/09 Inrockuptibles, La Cigale Paris 11/08/09 Inrockuptibles, Olympic Nantes 11/10/09 Inrockuptibles, Le Bikini Toulouse
Read More |
In last week's W♥M Podcast, Sally and I talked about how The Mercury Prize played a role in Pulp's Different Class album. Looking over the nomination for 2009's Mercury Prize, we've covered about four of the twelve nominees. Based on hype, I would bet La Roux will win, but based on the Mercury trend (they seem to like the youth rock thing, like Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys, and Elbow), I would suspect Sweet Billy Pilgrim, or even Kasabian, will win this year. Well, watch this September 8th to see who takes home the prize.
For those outside the UK (that's me), you might not know many of the nominees, including this album, Lungs by Florence and the Machine. The album, as far as I know, is not available in the US until October 20th, at least physical CD is concerned - as it's available as a download. If they win the Mercury Prize, a slim chance, seeing as the award rarely gives to female artists (only Ms. Dynamite and PJ Harvy have won in the 16 years), you will bet there will be a bigger promotional push everywhere.
Florence and the Machines is basically Florence Welch, who originally called herself "Florence Robot is a Machine" before dropping to simply Florence and the Machine (incidentally, why not just shorten it to just "Flo the Machine"?) Anyroad, they had a huge boost in popularity when they appeared on the BBC Introducing early on in their career.
Lungs came out in July 6th in the UK, on Island Records, a misfortunate release date, as it was the following week after the death of Michael Jackson. So they suffered the number two spot on the UK charts because, understandably, The Essential Michael Jackson dominated the charts for months to follow.
So what I instantly like about them is that Welch's songs are often revenge or depressive-driven, you know, stuff you can relate to. At the heart of it, songs like "Girl With One Eye", "My Boy Builds Coffins", "Hurricane Drunk", however muderous, really is about love. Not exactly typical love songs, and I can see why the BBC calls them "a choir girl gone horribly, desperately wrong".
She can be funny too, I think a lot of these songs have a little irony in them. Check out their first single, "Kiss With A Fist", a song about a lover's quarrel. See how Welch blends violence and love: "You hit me once, I hit you back. You gave a kick, I gave a slap. You smash a plate over my head, then I set fire to our bed.". What it comes down to is, "a kiss with a fist is better than none".
Welch's vocals reminds me a little bit of Adele, sometime bluesy, but where they differ is when the band sound like indiepop. Songs like "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" and "Drumming Song" are great example of when the band is most excellent. Both songs have this constant vocal and musical buildup, making it sound epic... but when you pull back and look, it's really great radio pop songs.
Look for Lungs in mid-October from Universal Republic in the US. If you can't wait, there's always the download option as I mentioned above.
For those outside the UK (that's me), you might not know many of the nominees, including this album, Lungs by Florence and the Machine. The album, as far as I know, is not available in the US until October 20th, at least physical CD is concerned - as it's available as a download. If they win the Mercury Prize, a slim chance, seeing as the award rarely gives to female artists (only Ms. Dynamite and PJ Harvy have won in the 16 years), you will bet there will be a bigger promotional push everywhere.
Florence and the Machines is basically Florence Welch, who originally called herself "Florence Robot is a Machine" before dropping to simply Florence and the Machine (incidentally, why not just shorten it to just "Flo the Machine"?) Anyroad, they had a huge boost in popularity when they appeared on the BBC Introducing early on in their career.
Lungs came out in July 6th in the UK, on Island Records, a misfortunate release date, as it was the following week after the death of Michael Jackson. So they suffered the number two spot on the UK charts because, understandably, The Essential Michael Jackson dominated the charts for months to follow.
So what I instantly like about them is that Welch's songs are often revenge or depressive-driven, you know, stuff you can relate to. At the heart of it, songs like "Girl With One Eye", "My Boy Builds Coffins", "Hurricane Drunk", however muderous, really is about love. Not exactly typical love songs, and I can see why the BBC calls them "a choir girl gone horribly, desperately wrong".
She can be funny too, I think a lot of these songs have a little irony in them. Check out their first single, "Kiss With A Fist", a song about a lover's quarrel. See how Welch blends violence and love: "You hit me once, I hit you back. You gave a kick, I gave a slap. You smash a plate over my head, then I set fire to our bed.". What it comes down to is, "a kiss with a fist is better than none".
Welch's vocals reminds me a little bit of Adele, sometime bluesy, but where they differ is when the band sound like indiepop. Songs like "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" and "Drumming Song" are great example of when the band is most excellent. Both songs have this constant vocal and musical buildup, making it sound epic... but when you pull back and look, it's really great radio pop songs.
Look for Lungs in mid-October from Universal Republic in the US. If you can't wait, there's always the download option as I mentioned above.
08/21/2009 07:45:00 ♥ vu (
) ♥ florenceandthemachine.net ♥ myspace.com ♥ twitter.com
Comments