The band’s seminal debut carved out a commercial niche for their unconventional brand of pop.
While it feels like just yesterday that ‘Dog Days Are Over’, ‘Between Two Lungs’ and ‘You’ve Got The Love’ were swirling the airwaves, July 3, 2020 marks the 11-year anniversary of the album which brought such hits: Florence + The Machine’s breakout LP Lungs.
Even though the band seemingly appeared out of nowhere at 22 years of age, frontwoman Florence Welch had been working towards her big break for some time. After dabbling in punk with her short-lived band The Toxic Cockroaches, Welch began performing in pubs alongside would-be Florence + The Machine keyboardist and backing vocalist Isabella Summers under the moniker Florence Robot/Isa Machine.
The pair’s respective nicknames – Florence Robot and Isabella Machine – and the resulting clunky performing title for their duo would soon form their new band’s namesake. A juxtaposition between harsh industrial apparatus and soft femininity, their title reflects Florence + The Machine’s gothic pop sound: an almost impossible balance of darkness and light, audacity and restraint.
Like Welch’s flame-red hair, Lungs demands attention. It’s bombastic and forceful yet acutely deliberate and often entrenched in fragility and vulnerability. Tickles of harp, violin and cello sit against the booming powerhouse of Welch’s voice, mirroring the emotional tug of war the album details. Lungs’ grand arrangements and use of classical instruments aren’t the typical recipes for commercial success, but it’s this larger than life sound and Welch’s grandiose vocal range which spelled the album’s success.
Though the album marries pristine production with tight compositions, Lungs began as a DIY project, an aspect which Welch endeavoured to cling to where possible.
“We recorded a lot of the album on a shit Yamaha keyboard that cost less than £100, and we managed to keep it on most of the tracks. I’m proud of that,” she said on the band’s blog following the album’s release.
Similarly, the thumping beat which drives ‘Dog Days Are Over’ was a product of Welch banging the rhythm with her hands against the studio walls. It’s these unassuming touches which convey the heart of the Welch and Summer’s humble vision.
Despite the record’s buoyant melodies, it takes little investigation to see that Lungs is a breakup album – and a pretty bleak one at that. Penned during a time of heartbreak for both Welch and Summers, the pair confined themselves to Summers’ studio to write and record the album. “I’m gonna drink myself to death/and in the crowd/I see you with someone else/I brace myself/’Cause I know it’s going to hurt/But I like to think at least things can’t get any worse,” Welch sings in ‘Hurricane Drunk’, discarding her usual veil of metaphors to reveal something much more raw and personal.
An unusual hit single, ‘Kiss With A Fist’ contrasts violent imagery with a pop beat that saw the track cop some heat for trivialising domestic violence with lyrics like “a kick in the teeth is good for some/A kiss with a fist is better than none”. However, Welch explained the song is not about a physically abusive relationship but rather borrows the imagery of physical violence as a metaphor for a relationship fuelled by chaotic passion.
Welch also noted that the song does not paint the story of a victim, but rather an equally forceful back and forth: “You hit me once/I hit you back/You gave a kick/I gave a slap/You smashed a plate over my head/Then I set fire to our bed” – the musings of a 17-year-old who had fallen in love for the first time and found herself entranced by the power of passion.
A homemade record turned critically-acclaimed debut, Lungs carved a space for Florence + The Machine’s gothic pop style mythical, sprite-like frontwoman in the commercial scene. While initial reviews of the LP compared Welch to the likes of Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks and Grace Slick, subsequent releases – 2011’s Ceremonials, 2015’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful and 2018’s High As Hope – have proved she’s far from an echo of those who have come before her.
