DFTD’S Favorite Albums of 2009: Lungs by Florence + the Machine
Between Fanfarlo, Friendly Fires, The Big Pink, and The xx, 2009 has been a particularly good year for new British indie rock bands. Several of these have the special distinction of making some of Don’t Forget to Dance’s favorite albums of the year, but a particular favorite of mine is Florence + the Machine’s Lungs.
With Lungs, front woman Florence Welch borrows heavily from influences Annie Lennox, Kate Bush and Grace Slick, while still managing to avoid sounding derivative. And although her influences are clear, her sound is a little hard to classify. It’s vox, pop, gothic, rock and roll and neo-soul all wrapped up together and sung with a voice that is - as the Brits would say - bloody epic. The songs on this album are powerful, defiant, and incredibly fun - so much so that it was a nearly impossible task for me to pick just one for this post.
Hence, I cheated. ”Cosmic Love” (above) is a fiercely gorgeous epic ballad, and “Girl With One Eye” (video below) is a deliciously malicious little Vaudeville-esque number. Together, they give you a pretty good idea of the awesomeness that is Florence + the Machine.
