How Big, Blue, Beautiful [LP] in Bloomington, MN

The much-anticipated third studio long-player from
Florence Welch
and her mechanically inclined companions,
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
arrives after a period of recalibration for the spirited English songtress. Arriving three-and-a-half years after 2011's well-received
Ceremonials
, the 11-track set, the first
Florence + the Machine
album to be produced by
Markus Dravs
(
Arcade Fire
,
Coldplay
), eschews some of the bombast and water- and death-fixated metaphors of
Lungs
and
in favor of a more restrained sonic scope and an honest reckoning with the dark follies of your late twenties. This change is most notable on the workmanlike opener "Ship to Wreck," a shimmering, open road-ready folk-rock rumination on the ambiguity/inevitability of post-fame self-destruction that, unlike prior first cuts like "Dog Days Are Over" and "Only If for a Night," feels firmly rooted in the now. The bluesy (and ballsy) "What a Man," the propulsive and purposeful "Delilah," and the gorgeous title track impress the most. Instead of building to a fevered crescendo, as is the
Flo-Machine
way, the latter cut, a transcendent, slow-burning, chamber pop gem, dissolves into a simple and elegant, yet still goose-bump-inducing round of horns, and is breathtaking without knocking the wind out of you. ~ James Christopher Monger