We really can't work out how we feel about Florence, we really can't. "Kiss With A Fist" was execrable but was cancelled out by the exhilarating and euphoric "You've Got The Love". But these are just songs. Our overall feelings about her as an artist, concept and person are deeply conflicted. Don't get us wrong. We are TOTAL suckers for quirky, kooky, offbeat female singer/songwriters. We eat them up. But it's become a bit outmoded and even it's proponents, Björk and Tori Amos, have moved on to avant-garde and alternative rock, respectively, with even the grandmother of the floaty maiden brigade, Kate Bush, having locked herself up in the countryside and only appearing once a decade to sing erotically about doing the washing.
Anyway... with the cutting edge of music now lying in pop and not floaty, literature-inspired alternafolk, artists like Florence & the Machine pack less of a punch. But are they on the way back in? After all there are only so many Lady GaGa knock-offs we can stand before we throw a harp over our back and go running into the woods to live with hobbits. And with Bat For Lashes improving and showing greater promise with each album, we may have another oddpop/folkster revival on the way.
WHICH BRINGS US TO: our feelings on the above video/single/overall package. It's actually rather fucking good. If we knew NOTHING about Florence, if we hadn't read horror stories about her being a stuck-up, pretentious, air-headed diva, if we hadn't experienced the horror of "Kiss With A Fist", if we didn't already get the feeling that it's all an act, and she's about as "weird" as that girl at school who thought she was alternative because she namedropped bands you didn't know... we'd think this was SO. RUDDY. GOOD.
So, like we've said, we're confused. Our instincts are telling us we love it. But does that mean we love HER?!
Anyway... with the cutting edge of music now lying in pop and not floaty, literature-inspired alternafolk, artists like Florence & the Machine pack less of a punch. But are they on the way back in? After all there are only so many Lady GaGa knock-offs we can stand before we throw a harp over our back and go running into the woods to live with hobbits. And with Bat For Lashes improving and showing greater promise with each album, we may have another oddpop/folkster revival on the way.
WHICH BRINGS US TO: our feelings on the above video/single/overall package. It's actually rather fucking good. If we knew NOTHING about Florence, if we hadn't read horror stories about her being a stuck-up, pretentious, air-headed diva, if we hadn't experienced the horror of "Kiss With A Fist", if we didn't already get the feeling that it's all an act, and she's about as "weird" as that girl at school who thought she was alternative because she namedropped bands you didn't know... we'd think this was SO. RUDDY. GOOD.
So, like we've said, we're confused. Our instincts are telling us we love it. But does that mean we love HER?!
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