Florence Continues the “Sound”
January 7th, 2009 by Leilani Polk in Arts, Music, News
I know, I know — a post a day about this doggone series could get very tiring. But seeing as past artists who made the BBC’s “Sound of 2009” music-to-watch-for-in-the-New-Year series had pretty good years in ‘08 — MGMT, Santogold, The Ting Tings, Glasvegas, Black Kids — I feel I should prolly be following it to the very end (which happens to be on Friday, since only the top five artists, not the actual complete 10, will be revealed this week). The artist who placed third on the list is UK songstress Florence and the Machine (pictured, photo by Tom Beard Photography). And man oh man, is she ever great.
In fact, as far as I can tell, Florence Welch (her real name) is the most promising of the three artists revealed thus far (the others being La Roux and Empire of the Sun). Nice throaty vocals ala Regina Spektor (more lo-fi and with a west London brogue), punchy rhythms and fun, witty lyrics (”A kick in the teeth is good for some / A kiss with a fist is better than none … You hit me once / I hit you back / You gave a kick / I gave a slap / You smashed a plate over my head / Then I set fire to our bed”). I think I might be in love.
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