STACK J#165 Jul 2018

MUSIC FEATURE

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FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

The fourth album from Florence + the Machine has its head in the starry clouds, but its feet on the pedals of a bicycle trundling down a road in South London. Frontwoman Florence Welch explains how High As Hope renounces the gloss of the industry but remains full of romantic dreams.

Words Zoë Radas

F lorence Welch has never shied away from speaking about her wrestle with alcohol addiction; she even admits that booze- fuelled shindigs were her initial attraction to the music industry. “’Oh my God, I’m going to get to go to so many parties, it’s going to be amazing,’” the 30-year-old mimics her younger self, with a smile. “I was totally up for it, and I sort of smashed it to bits.” Those years of Florence + the Machine – decorated, of course, but also full of Welch’s personal search for meaning in dangerously dark places – resulted in three albums, the most recent of which was the five-time Grammy- nominated, Mercury Prize-shortlisted How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful . “I think the last record was a definite… err, cry. Of, ‘I definitely think something outside me will fix this, and it’s probably you, and why won’t you fix it?’ And… ‘Oh, I can date the solution’, or ‘I can drink the solution, or take the solution.’ I think this record is definitely a recognition of ‘Oh, you can’t.’” “This” record is High As Hope , which is as full of the reach for self-love as its title suggests. Accompanied by the stomp of a choir’s bare feet, Welch examines her shortcomings and her goals in ornate detail, linking them into a wider experience; stand-

Making work, and being creative… the ways that I’ve always loved expressing myself have just got stronger

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JULY 2018

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