Florence + The Machine
Ceremonials - UNIVERSAL REPUBLIC
FILTER Grade: 79%

If everything is a matter of life or death, sooner or later the statement ceases to mean much at all. Such is the issue with Florence and the Machine’s Ceremonials. Hitting every note as though she’s auditioning for American Idol, Florence Welch effectively decimates the album’s impressively delicate compositions. Her voice still has the power to elicit tears, but her lack of restraint is not unlike having someone scream “Girl power!” at the top of her lungs for the better part of an hour—inspirational for the first moments, then white noise after that. Ceremonials swings with a wintry swirl of choirs, harps and keys, all layered sky-high. But rather than that of a Motown diva, Welch plays the role of possessed choral leader. The jazzy slur she demonstrates in “All This and Heaven Too” turns out to be a rarity, as much of the album is given over to the kind of lyric-belting that would make Christina Aguilera blush. Too often this coincides with some of the album’s finest moments, such as the “Dog Days Are Over” positivity of “Shake It Out,” or the mysticism of “Heartlines.” An ambitious project aimed at true believers, the overstuffed affair simply suggests to the rest of us that just because you can go big, doesn’t mean you should do it all of the time.