History Music / FlorenceAndTheMachine

* [[SharpDressedMan Sharp Dressed Woman]]: Florence has worn a sparkly silver men's tuxedo - albeit [[DoesNotLikeShoes without shoes]] - on several occasions. She wore a more normal one in the video for "Sweet Nothing".

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Performing barefoot in concerts and music videos is one of Florence's trademarks.

* LongTitle:
** "What The Water Gave Me", "I'm Not Calling You A Liar", "Only If For A Night", "All This And Heaven Too".
** Album title wise: ''How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful'' (which is also the TitleTrack).

* SingingVoiceDissonance: Florence's speaking voice is a soft, whispery soprano, but her voice is a deep, strong, extremely powerful alto.

Their music is frequently used in pop culture releases. They contributed the song "Heavy In Your Arms" to the ''Literature/{{Twilight}} Saga: Eclipse'' soundtrack, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROtBbOcdFxo performed a song for]] ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman''. One of their songs were also used in Series/{{Revenge}}'s finale, to great acclaim, and in a season finale of Series/{{Warehouse 13}}. "Seven Devils" was used to great effect in the ''Series/GameOfThrones'' season 2 trailer, and she later rendered the in-universe song "Jenny of Oldstones" for season 8. The song "Over The Love" was made for ''Film/TheGreatGatsby2013'' movie soundtrack, which appears to be a song from Daisy's perspective. Meanwhile, her cover version of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" is used in the video game ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', and she contributed two other songs in an [=EP=] titled ''Songs from Final Fantasy XV'', as well as a remix of "I'm Not Calling You A Liar" for ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII''. The song "Wish You Were Here" was also made for the soundtrack of ''Film/MissPeregrinesHomeForPeculiarChildren'', and "Call Me Cruella" was their contribution to the ''Film/{{Cruella}}'' OST.

** "The Bomb," a song about DestructiveRomance, ends with the lines, "And I'm in ruins, but is it what I wanted all along? / Sometimes you get the good, sometimes you get a song."

* TrueArtIsAngsty: InUniverse, the narrator muses that "happiness is an extremely uneventful subject" in "No Choir" and that pain and suffering fuel her art in "King":
-->And how much is art really worth?\\
The very thing you're best at\\
Is the thing that hurts the most

* MsFanservice: Florence is a very beautiful woman in a classical, almost elfin sense, and she's not at all afraid to wear outfits that show her body off. She doesn't usually get as extreme as some musicians, but it's hard to argue that outfits like [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3c/f3/e7/3cf3e765a7de19a66212b25bf0e5ff96--florence-the-machines-florence-welch.jpg this]], [[http://imgur.com/X2Wbm this,]] and [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5d/09/92/5d0992079d71ac230d6f90ec1ee534a4--florence-the-machine-florence-welch-style.jpg this]] don't qualify. See ShesGotLegs and StatuesqueStunner below. She also has a PantyShot in the music video for "Kiss With a Fist", is briefly topless in the ones for "What Kind Of Man" and "Long & Lost" and spends half the music video for "Ship to Wreck" in nothing but a lacy red bra and skinny jeans.

* ShesGotLegs: Given how tall Florence is, a given that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUWolWkoY9Y she'd have great legs and be proud to show them]]. Featured in the video for "Drumming Sound", "You've got the love" and "Kiss with a Fist". Along with a great deal of her concerts.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: As birth names go, "Florence Leontine Mary Welch" is a pretty good one.

* RefrainFromAssuming:
** "Spectrum" is the real title of that song. It is not called "Say My Name" no matter what urges the song gives you to say it is that.
** The Calvin Harris remix of "Spectrum" is called "Spectrum (Say My Name)".

%%* WhamLine: "The End of Love"
%%-->And in a moment of joy and fury I threw myself\\
%%From the balcony like my grandmother so many years before me

* FamilyVersusCareer: Explored in "King", which deals with Florence's struggle being wanting to have a family and realising she'll have to put her career on hold.

* FreeHandedPerformer: Florence has previously claimed in an interview that she can't play any instrument. However, she has been credited as a percusionnist and a piano performer on albums of the band (starting with their album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful and continuing since).

Florence + the Machine is the work of British singer/songwriter Florence Leontine Mary Welch (born 28 August 1986), with 'the machine' being her backing group (once a [[RevolvingDoorBand rotating cast]], but it has had the same lineup for nearly a decade). The name originally referred to her original collaborator (and current keyboardist for her backing group) Isabella Summers when the group was "Florence Robot/Isa Machine" to be shortened to its current moniker. After her debut album ''Lungs'' made number one in the United Kingdom (six months after release, and repeatedly), she became one of 2009's frontrunners in a burst of popular, powerful female pop music. Her second album, ''Ceremonials'', switched tacks abruptly and took the world by storm in a burst of overpowering soul music.

* MasqueradeBall: The music video for "Shake it Out" takes place during a 1920s masked ball, complete with masks.* MelismaticVocals:

* DarkerAndEdgier: "Sweet Nothing" gets rid of all metaphors originally used in her own previous videos. It isn't her song, she's just lending her voice to Calvin Harris's.

* DeadpanSnarker: When someone asked what she'd do to celebrate winning a BRIT award, she said, "I'll do laundry."
** And in a song:
--->Want me to love you in moderation\\
Do I look moderate to you?

* HeavyMeta: "No Choir", the opening of "The End of Love", the ending of "Heaven Is Here".

* LighterAndSofter: ''How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful'' is this compared to ''Ceremonials''.
-->Ceremonials was so fixated on death and water, and the idea of escape or transcendence through death, but the new album became about trying to learn how to live, and how to love in the world rather than trying to escape from it.

** "What the Water Gave Me" has shades of this as well.
---> Oh my love, don't forsake me\\
Take what the water gave me

** "Daffodil" goes the opposite way to the examples above - musically the song is quite downbeat and ominous but the lyrics are mostly about the subject getting excited over flowers blooming.

* MelismaticVocals:

* MasqueradeBall: The music video for "Shake it Out" takes place during a 1920s masked ball, complete with masks.

* MoodWhiplash:
** "Lover To Lover", which is a sort of upbeat screw-you-I’ll-do-what-I-want song, going into "No Light, No Light"'s apologetic and sad lyrics and soft vocals, which goes into the TranquilFury of "Seven Devils”, which is another screw-you song, on ''Ceremonials''.
** "Mother": See GainaxEnding above.

* MsFanservice: Florence is a very beautiful woman in a classical, almost elfin sense, and she's not at all afraid to wear outfits that show her body off. She doesn't usually get as extreme as some musicians, but it's hard to argue that outfits like [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3c/f3/e7/3cf3e765a7de19a66212b25bf0e5ff96--florence-the-machines-florence-welch.jpg this]], [[http://imgur.com/X2Wbm this,]] and [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5d/09/92/5d0992079d71ac230d6f90ec1ee534a4--florence-the-machine-florence-welch-style.jpg this]] don't qualify. See ShesGotLegs and StatuesqueStunner below. She also has a panty shot in the music video for "Kiss With a Fist", is briefly topless in the ones for "What Kind Of Man" and "Long & Lost" and spends half the music video for "Ship to Wreck" in nothing but a lacy red bra and skinny jeans.

* RageAgainstTheHavens: In "Girls Against God," the narrator decided to wage Holy War (that looked very much like staring at her bedroom floor.)

* SelfDeprication: "King" says, "I was never as good / As I always thought I was / But I knew how to dress it up."

* SeeYouInHell: The implication of "Lover to Lover".

* BadassBoast: "Seven Devils":
-->Holy water cannot help you now\\

--->I met the Devil\\

[[FridgeLogic Or a golden voice]]

* DespairEventHorizon: "Mother"

** Religion and spirituality is also a common theme in their music, maybe even more than drowning. Heaven and hell, the devil, voodoo, churches, dead and the afterlife, and a ton of other stuff pop up in all three albums and their music video. "Bedroom Hymns" is an entire song comparing religion with love while "St. Jude" invokes the patron saint of lost causes while comparing a failing relationship to a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Jude_storm deadly 2013 storm]]. WordOfGod confesses that Florence is obsessed with religion and spirituality, even though she's not religious herself.

* BreakUpBonfire: In the music video for "Lover to Lover".

* WeAllDieSomeday: "My Boy Builds Coffins" for everyone, for kings and queens, beggars and liars. He's built a coffin for himself and for the singer. "One of these days he'll make one for you".

* WhamLine: "The End of Love"
-->And in a moment of joy and fury I threw myself\\
From the balcony like my grandmother so many years before me
* WhatIsThisFeeling: ''All This And Heaven Too''.

** "Hurricane Drunk".
--->I'm going to drink myself to death
** "The End of Love" is a RealLife example. See WhamLine.
** "What the Water Gave Me" is an interesting case in that it takes inspiration from a real life case of this; namely the suicide of Creator/VirginiaWoolf.

* TranquilFury: "Seven Devils" could be seen as being about this; as indicated by the soft but slightly creepy musical structure and threatening lyrics.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: The opening to "No Choir" lampshades this.
-->And it's hard to write about being happy\\
Cause the older I get\\
I find that happiness is an extremely uneventful subject

* TitleOnlyChorus: "Howl" and "You've Got The Love" off ''Lungs''. "Daffodil" and ""Dream Girl Evil" off ''Dance Fever''

** Deluxe versions of ''Ceremonials'', ''High as Hope'' and ''Dance Fever'' feature two or three of the the tracks reworked as acoustic versions.

-->you deserve to be loved and you deserve what you are given