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Florence Welch returns with her second album, Ceremonials, and with all the references to ghosts, ghouls, devils and supernatural happenings, it’s an appropriate Halloween release. Bursting into the charts in 2009 with Lungs, Welch certainly had a lot to live up to with this sophomore offering. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that she chose to use the Abbey Road studio for most of her recording.
Ceremonials brings back a lot of Welch’s best-loved themes and effects. Returning again, the dream-like quality of many of her songs still provides a unique sound alongside her harp and mesmerising vocals. She brings to the organ into the mix with ‘What the Water Gave Me’, giving the listener an idea of church services, which in turn ties in with the real message of the song – suicide. ‘What the Water Gave Me’ doesn’t just hint at the death of Virginia Woolf, it explains her chosen method. "Let the only sound be the overflow / pockets full of stones", Welch half sings, half chants in her haunting chorus; Woolf did indeed fill her pockets with stones and walked into a river. Interestingly, the cover of Ceremonials is a copy of the cover of Woolf’s collected works. It could well be that Welch has found her muse.
Continuing with familiar themes, ‘Shake It Out’ contains lyrics that hark back to ‘Hurricane Drunk’. Both songs give the impression that Welch is letting go or running from something that has hurt her in her past. "And I am done with my graceless heart / So tonight I’m gonna cut it out and then restart", compared with, "I’m going out, I’m gonna drink myself to death / and in the crowd, I see you with someone else"; the songs show a similarity, but in ‘Shake It Out’, as with the whole of the Ceremonials album, Welch’s backing is much more explosive and defiant.
Welch has never been one to pull her punches when it comes to lyrics. Just as with Lungs, Ceremonials references classical mythology and literature. She keeps the same depth of emotion in Ceremonials as she does with Lungs, as is evident in ‘No Light, No Light’. The song feels similar to ‘Cosmic Love’ in terms of content, but whereas her earlier release showed more physical separation, ‘No Light, No Light’ is more about emotional distance. When we come to the final track, ‘Leave My Body’, the change in energy is indicative of the finishing of the ceremony. Indeed, the whole album seems to lead us through an emotional and mental cleansing, ending with this final leaving of the body, contrasted with Lungs’ slightly more grounded feel.
Love her or hate her, it’s difficult to escape Welch’s clear-cut vocals and melodies. Ceremonials is essentially Lungs version 2.0, Lungs without anything held back; as it is, her frantic pace almost drowns out her final quieter track. Hopefully this trend won’t lead to Muse’s The Resistance-esque symphonies and overbearing lyrics. Only time will tell – in the meantime, there are always the bonus tracks.
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