Florence and The Machine has never been known for her minimalism. She broke into the mainstream with her gale-force voice, and continued to ride that wave over three albums that pulled on visceral instrumentation to offer some of pop music's most cinematic, high-drama releases this decade.
High as Hope, Florence Welch's fourth offering, dials things right down, with diminishing returns. It's a startlingly raw record, with Welch offering some of the most honest and personal lyrics of her career, and the production largely playing with slow-tempo drums, pianos and horns. But what's missing is Welch's usual knack for searing vocal hooks and stunning melodies. A number of the songs on Hope fail to sink their teeth into the ideas that Welch has laid out on the table, resulting in a record that fades from memory by the time it's over.
Second single Hunger opens with a harrowing admission ("At 17, I started to starve myself"), and continues to reveal some of Welch's most harrowing lyrics as she discusses her battles with addiction – "I thought that love was in the drugs/But the more I took, the more it took away". But the track's forgettable structure lets down its own emotional work, with a chorus that plods along with the same chords as the verses, circling around a barren vocal hook – "we all have a hunger".
Songs such as June and Big God are let down by similar trappings, with a lack of elevation leaving a noticeable emptiness. But this is a Florence and the Machine record, and it would be criminal to ignore the moments of essential beauty that Welch unfailingly delivers. South London Forever is a skyward-facing ode to the distilled, ephemeral kind of happiness to be found in partying; along with some of her most poetic lyrics ("Young and drunk and stumbling in the street… like foals unsteady on their feet"), the chorus intertwines a modest beat with Welch's falsetto, allowing it to unfold like an opening flower. Later, the hypnotic Patricia, written in homage to Patti Smith, makes use of thrilling handclaps and a stomping beat before dancing its way out in an ambient, string-heavy outro.
