Florence and The Machine - Lungs

Two years in the making at Island Records, Lungs is the impressive debut album from Florence and The Machine. It is refreshing to find an album with each track offering something new - the punky single Kiss With A Fist to the catchy pop of You’ve Got The Love, (which is set to be a huge summer anthem). Especially as the album has sold over 100,000 copies and retained the number 2 spot for five weeks running*.

Considering that most of the material on the album was a reaction to a temporary split between Welch and her current boyfriend and has some rather dark lyrics, as a whole the album is surprisingly uplifting – making for easy listening, despite some of the words being difficult to discern.

Florence Welch has put herself in a great position to become the next thriving female artist. With a unique style, courtesy of super stylist Aldene Johnson and Brit designer Hannah Marshall, and voice that you can’t help but sit up and listen to placing her somewhere between Amy Lee and a modern Kate Bush.

Having already won The Brit Critics’ Choice Section, Studio8’s Female Voice of July 2009 and Song of July 2009 for Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), Florence and the Machine is definitely one to watch this year.

Best songs: Dog Days Are Over, Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), Kiss With A Fist, Girl With One Eye, Cosmic Love and You’ve Got The Love.

Band: Florence Welch, Robert Ackroyd, Christopher Lloyd Hayden, Isabella Summers, Tom Monger.

Producer: James Ford, Paul Epworth, Isabella Summers, Stephen Mackey, Charlie Hugall, Richard Flack and Eg White

Released: 6th July 2009

Label: Island Records