4/5
Dance Against The Machine.
Electric Lady studios, Greenwich Village, New York City, last Summer. The best artist to emerge over the last half-decade Maggie Rogers was downstairs on a 'Surrender' to record her new album and follow-up to her dynamic debut 'Heard It In A Past Life', due July. Upstairs was a legend she had already shared a stage with. Florence Welch and her machine that rages against the idea that we don't have any timeless Dylan like music today (Maggie too) in all their Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush power. Clearly hearing and loving what each other were working on the pair of red hot artists decided to trade backing vocals on each other projects. Cue to an earlier story spun by Jack White for Spin magazine. Now you know what it would have been like if you knocked on Mariah Carey's door that White Stripes recording session day, Jack. We can't wait to hear what Flo, the Rogers dubbed "sorceress sister" has in store for 'Surrender', on our most anticipated album of the year, let alone Summer. But on the 'Dance Fever' of something you do actually want to catch these days, Maggie Rogers lends her beautiful backing to two tracks. "I met the Devil/You know, he gave me a choice/A golden heart/Or a golden voice", Florence sings on 'Girls Against God', debuted at an intimate show in Newcastle. The new anthem for "crying into our cereal at mignight", as you know which choice she made. Whilst 'Dream Girl Evil' is an absolute standout. Even next to the already four singles. "Well, did I disappoint you?/Did mommy make you sad?/Do I just remind you/Of every girl that made you mad?/Make me perfect, make me your fantasy/You know I deserve it/Well, take it out on me," Welch asks. Hey girl, I don't mean to sound like Ryan Gosling, but this is the best Flo-ing collaboration since Lady Gaga for 'Joanne'. "Love you forever" the 'Alaska' singer tweets. You too Mag'.
The Queen is back after a long awaited four years with the follow up to the 2018 different time's 'High As Hope'. All in a big week with anticipated releases from Kendrick Lamar (the five star 'Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers', that's got next) and another one from The Black Keys ('Dropout Boogie') just 364 days after their 'Delta Kream'. And it's all crowned by the lead track and single, 'King'. A record that really takes the throne in thorns and branches of a natural regal presence, in all the nature of her beauty. "We argue in the kitchen about whether to have children/About the world ending and the scale of my ambition/And how much is art really worth/The very thing you're best at is the thing that hurts the most/But you need your rotten heart, your dazzling pain like diamond rings/You need to go to war to find material to sing/I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king." A "bloody sword to swing" and sing on this fifth and most personal album to date. Ceremonial from the lungs of this singer with a plus. How big. How blue. How so beautiful. 'Heaven Is Here' truly on the second single from the indie progressive pop powerhouse before the gates open on 'My Love'. Just an absolute classic ballad, straight forward on an album of epic experimental measures. But still as bold as Hendrix, singing, "I was always able to write my way out/The song always made sense to me/Now I find that when I look down/Every page is empty." Nah, this isn't writers block. Quite the opposite. But if it was. It never sounded so good. Just like the latest single 'Free' that sets us off and tells us, "I hear the music, I feel the beat/And for a moment, when I'm dancing, I am free/I hear the music, I feel the beat/And for a moment, when I'm dancing/I am free/I am free." And in turn, at last, so are we.
Flowers for Florence in an album that takes us from the studio to the hospital, deep in her anguish and love. Our standout amongst all these singles and Rogers appearances is 'Daffodil'. As classic and beautiful as a Van Gogh sunflower in its single stroke of gesture. "English sun, she has come/To kiss my face and tell me I'm that chosen one/A generation soaked in grief/We're drying out and hanging on by the skin of our teeth/I never thought it would get this far/This somewhat drunken joke/Sometimes I see so much beauty/I don't think that I can cope." This is your tarot card of choice in a deck, songbook thick of lasting lyrics for a legacy of legend, belonging to the best like Bob and Bruce, brooding around Greenwich with the beat poets. This Polydor baroque record co-produced by Jack Antonoff, Kid Harpoon, Doveman, Dave Baley of Oxford's Glass Animals and Florence herself is right there with Bon Iver as the soundscape of our best inspirations today. As hallmark in its iconic stature as the Autumn de Wilde filmed album artwork and music videos from the great photographer and director. The 'Cheromania' (there's even a track about that) of dance explored in concept by the woman who once covered "sometimes I feel like, throwing my hands up in the air". Citing Iggy Pop, playing passenger as her main inspiration for this album, as we ride through the city of London tonight. Also invoking Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris and movies like A24's 'Midsommar' (starring another Florence...Pugh) and 'The Wicker Man' that it burned with in the woods of inspiration. All for this industrial gothic disco that still a ball. After our dark ages, this middle inspired one is our euphoric return to the festival. 'Back In Town'. An ode an answer to your 'Prayer Factory', like 'Cassandra'. A muse that slams its palms against the glass, telling us, "I used to see the future and now I see nothin'/They cut out my eyes and sent me home packin'/To pace around the kitchen for scraps of inspiration/Cryin' like Cassandra, I/I used to tell the future, but they cut out my tongue/And left me doin' laundry to think on what I'd done/It wasn't me, it was the song. But liberation comes out the margins of this record. A moral panic to 'The Bomb', showing no 'Restriant' in harmony like the classic lyrics, "sometimes you get the good/sometimes you get a song" as more bodies hit the floor. Casualties of love and war. But as this classic comes to a curtain it's the 'Morning Elvis' that says, "thank you very much" and so much more after the beginnings of King. "When they dressed me and they put me on a plane to Memphis, well/I never got to see Elvis/I just sweated it out in a hotel room/But I think the king would have understood/Why I never made it to Graceland." Just like Springsteen storming the suede shoe steps to get the gates, like we all wish we could. But nothing will be returned to sender here. After almost four years of production, this Pre-Raphaelite album of tragic heroines gives us a victorious one, laying claim. As beautiful as a place in Italy. Best Florence since Nightingale. This gives us fever like Peggy Lee. Dance, dance, dance. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'King', 'Dream Girl Evil (Feat. Maggie Rogers)', 'Daffodil'.
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