Florence Welch is prominent on the cover of her new album, 'Ceremonials'. One wonders where the Machine has gone. Photo Credit: Island Records
Ceremonials is British art rock act Florence + the Machine’s wild, wacky and wonderful offering to the world of music. Released this Sunday, there’s a terrific amount of buzz surrounding the album. Here are the top five things you need to know before you have a listen:
1. Karl Lagerfeld shot the cover. According to The Daily Telegraph, everyone who’s anyone in the fashion world is courting the band’s front-lady Welch. Fashion A-lister Lagerfeld got plum place (of course) when Welch agreed to let him take her picture for the cover of the new album.
2. Ceremonials has a ‘scientific’ bent. It seems like there’s a bit of a science trend going on in the female rock star world (Björk’s Biophilia, anyone?) — the NME has reported that Welch has “taken to science” for inspiration, with one song, ‘Strangeness and Charm’ elucidating the poetry of subatomic particles. Maybe that’s why the geeks over at Princeton University (the erstwhile home of Albert Einstein) love it — The Daily Princetonian‘s Intersections blog called it “robust”.
3. The guitar is back! The NME also reported that Welch had announced that she would use a guitar again on this album. “The guitar is coming back – I’ve gone full circle!”, she admitted, going on to say it was a “much stranger” sound she’s come up with than when she previously used the guitar.
4. No Drake. Rap artist Drake was supposed to collaborate with Welch on the album, but, despite the fact that he’d even picked out the song he wanted, the project never came to fruition. Welch told the NME that she still wanted to work with Drake in the future.
5. Making the new album was a “breeze”. At least that’s what Welch told The Daily Telegraph. Maybe she found it so easy because she’s actually a “wild she wolf”, according to Laura Barton of The Guardian. No, Barton doesn’t actually think Welch is a meat-eating canine (but wouldn’t that be cool?!), rather she’s a true eccentric who draws from literary and artistic movements with ease.
