YMMV / Florence + the Machine

• Awesome Music:
  • "You've Got the Love" (even if it's Covered Up), "No Light, No Light", "What the Water Gave Me", "Drumming Song", "Shake It Out", "Cosmic Love", and of course, "Dog Days Are Over". And that's not half of it.
  • The covers of "Jackson" and "Try a Little Tenderness" on her MTV Live Unplugged album.
  • DRUMMING. SONG. UNPLUGGED. Especially the oh oh ohs at the end.
  • "Breath of Life" is pure awesome, with Florence backed by a powerful orchestra and choir.
  • "Heartlines". Heart. Lines.
  • SAY MY NAAAAAAAAAME.
  • "Over the Love" is Florence's contribution to the 2013 film version of The Great Gatsby, a song from Daisy's perspective, and holy shit does it deliver.
  • "Bedroom Hymns"
  • "Heavy in Your Arms"
  • "Which Witch", the bonus track for How Big, How Blue, Beautiful...just wow. "Wait til the beat comes down", indeed.
  • "Strangeness and Charm"
  • "Stand by Me"
  • "Queen of Peace". Those trumpets.
  • "Big God"
  • "100 Years". Full stop.
  • ”My Love” and “Choreomania”, once it properly picks up.
• Covered Up: Other than "You've Got the Love" there is also "Girl with One Eye" originally by Ludes.
• Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory: Her love of occult, mythological and religious symbolism means this is a common response to her music videos, as described in the below section.
• Epic Riff:
  • "Seven Devils" piano riff is irresistible.
  • Ukelele in "Dog Days". Instantly recognizable.
  • Same for the brass riff in "Queen of Peace".
  • The simple but effective guitar riff in "What Kind of Man"
• Fan Nickname: "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" is often shortened to HBHBHB or even HB3.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "Hurricane Drunk", especially in light of the development of Hurricane Florence in 2018.
• Heartwarming Moments: "Only If For a Night" is based on a dream Florence had in which she was visited by the ghost of her grandmother. Keep that in mind, and listen closely to the lyrics; one gets a good idea of just how close they were. It makes for unlikely Sweet Dreams Fuel.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Some listeners were confused by the direction they took on their second album. Either it was too similar to selected tracks on their first record, or lacked the variety of their first album and therefore sucked.
• Memetic Badass: Among her fans, the question isn't if Florence is secretly a witch/fairy/pagan nature goddess living in the human world, but only, what kind she is.
• Mood Dissonance: For example, take this portion from "Spectrum".
  We are shining
  And we will never be afraid again
  And when we come back we'll be dressed in black
  And you'll scream my name aloud
  And we won't eat and we won't sleep
  We'll drag bodies from our graves
  • Yes, that's right, the song may or may not be about vampires. Or maybe zombies. Or just plain monsters.
• Narm: The song "Between Two Lungs" contains the spectacularly narmy line:
  And my running feet could fly
  Each breath screaming: "We are all too young to die!"
• Refrain from Assuming:
  • "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)".
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • "Spectrum" music video has some lighting and other shots and a story which are slipped in and not essentially obvious first time around.
  • Most of their videos need a rewatch.
• Signature Song: "Dog Days Are Over", "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)", "Breath of Life", "Kiss With a Fist", and "You've Got the Love".
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While all three albums after Lungs were contested by a portion of the fanbase one way or the other, Dance Fever has been almost universally acclaimed as their best work so far, blending musical variety, lyrical honesty and cohesiveness. As of its publication, it's their best-rated album by music critics.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "Hardest of Hearts", especially if you witness or felt this feeling.
  • "Breaking Down", "Never Let Me Go", "I'm Not Calling You a Liar", "Queen of Peace", "Blinding", "Falling", "Swimming", "Howl", "Ghosts (Demo)", "Heavy in Your Arms", "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful", "Landscape (Demo)", "June", "Grace", "No Choir", "The End of Love", "King", "The Bomb".
  • Their cover of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" and "Too Much is Never Enough", from Final Fantasy XV
  • "Heaven is Here" shouldn't be a Tear Jerker, but becomes this after its video was posted with the following message:
  Two of the dancers in this video are currently sheltering. To my brave and beautiful sisters Maryne and Anastasiia. I love you. I wish I could put my arms around you. Strength.^note The first four Dance Fever music videos were at least partially filmed in Ukraine just three months before the Russo-Ukrainian War. Two of the backing dancers, amongst many other background extras, were of Ukrainian nationality.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Florence herself claimed that on How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, she tried to dial down a lot of the Large Ham and yelling often present on Ceremonials. While almost everyone agreed she actually did achieve the stripped-down nature on High as Hope, it was at the expense of variety.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: In the "Spectrum" video, there appears to be a young girl version of Florence doing ballet. It rather looks like a real life Photoshop, and decidedly unnerving.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: No, Florence isn't dancing with another woman in the music video for "Never Let Me Go", Jamie Campbell Bower is just that pretty.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?:
  • It's easy to misconstrue her lyrics to having religious themes, as she often refers to Heaven, Hell, the devil, and angels.
  • "Drumming Song" is chock-full of sexual imagery, and religious imagery. The video even takes place in a church, and there's a case to be made that the backup dancers are angels. Or devils. Or just hallucinations.
  • Bedroom Hymns
  • The performance of "Shake It Out" on The X Factor used lots of religious imagery, from Florence's dress to the background to a gospel choir.
  • The music video for "No Light, No Light" takes it farther than "Drumming Song", using Christian, Voodoo, and Illuminati imagery.
  • Amusingly subverted by "Big God" - despite the slightly creepy and witch-like music video and the seeming religious symbolism in the lyrics, Florence says it's actually about being ghosted by a cute guy she liked.

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