Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials (Island)

 
It won best album at the Brits, received Mercury and Grammy nominations and set an impressive new benchmark for what a contemporary British female soloist can achieve. 

A benchmark that Adele promptly smashed with 21.

The flame-haired Londoner has responded with a record less concerned with the indie credibility that was part of Lungs’ winning formula than building soulful, sweeping pop melodramas, slathered with strings, choirs and booming drums, to the point where you can practically hear producer Paul Epworth’s mixing desk groan with exhaustion.

Lovers of Lungs will recognise most of Ceremonials’ motifs – foot-stomping rhythms, swooping vocals, twinkling harp and lots of she-devil Kate Bush-isms in lines like “the entrails of the animals, the blood running though”, as Welch sings on ‘Heartlines’. It’s more consistent than its predecessor, as a whole – almost every track feels like a potential single.

Even if, disappointingly, it turns out to be about something as prosaic as overcoming a hangover, nothing tops ‘Shake it Out’ – a giant of a tune built around droning chords that sound as if they’re being played on a phalanx of church organs. ‘Breaking Down’ is a high-sheen modern riff on glam Bowie; ‘Lover to Lover’ sounds like a vague approximation of ‘Heard it Through the Grapevine’ sung by a gospel choir.

Ceremonials upping the ante on Adele seems unlikely – it’s too dark to attain that X Factor-level ubiquity – but this album has all the makings of another big hit.