And I’m going to make the call.Florence’s first album “Lungs” was mind-blowing and did not have one song on it that let it down… but I think she has outdone herself with “Ceremonials”. She has exceeded herself with an amazingly conceptual album that I am still unraveling the layers of; once again complex yet poetic lyrics with multiple messages; and music composition which shows what a natural artist she is.
This fallacy, this fantasy, this tumbling stone
Echoes in a city that is long overgrown
And your heart is the only place that I call home
Can I be returned?
- Heartlines
I read somewhere that “Ceremonials” has themes of fighting the illuminati running through it and whilst discussingFlorence’s latest single and video clip “No Light, No Light” on facebook a friend of made the comment that she had messiah complex, and then conceded to “she is definitely religious though???” (as if being religious is some kind of justification for why we should listen to her music with a grain of salt just in case we found ourselves at the alter of conversion… we couldn’t have that now, could we?). But, I read somewhere that whenFlorence was younger it was actually witchcraft that she was in to and would often practice love spells to change the fate of unrequited love.
I digress… But yes, throughout ceremonials there are a lot of references throughout the lyrics to devils & demons, heaven and hell, light and dark combined with chamber sounds of which I definitely think link to a larger artistic concept running through the album of challenging or avoiding the occult, but also wonderfully articulate the duality of self and the individual struggles we all have with darkness and light within us all…“Looking for heaven, for the devil in me…” (Shake It Out).
You can’t choose what stays and what fades away
And I’d do anything to make you stay
No light, no light
Tell me what you want me to say…
- No Light, No Light
I love her exploration of the vicissitudes of life including: her struggle yet comfort with depression she explored with “Breaking Down”; the strength she fills me with in “Shake it Out” to overcome the past and embrace the future; the desperation she expresses in “No Light, No Light”; and the tears she has streaming down my face with “Heartlines” as she calls out to an ex-lover to keep following their destiny because she is and maybe one day they will be returned to each other. It is “Heartlines” that makes me crave a memory like the “wednesday afternoon” she captures (listen to the song to understand, preferably the acoustic version – amazing!).
And I’ve been a fool, and I’ve been blind
I can never leave the past behind…
I can see no way, I can see no way
I’m always dragging that horse around…
- Shake it Out
Ceremonials Track Listing:
1. Only if for a night
2. Shake it Out
3. What the Water Gave Me
4. Never Let Me Go
5. Breaking Down
6. Lover to Lover
7. No Light, No Light
8. Seven Devils
9. Heartlines
10. Spectrum
11. All This and Heaven Too
12. Leave My Body
I also insist that everyone get and listen to Ceremonials [Disc 2] which has some amazing acoustic versions as well as some other masterpieces including “Remain Nameless” and “Bedroom Hymns” (which someone described on a forum as being the 2011 “like a prayer”).
