Florence & The Machine - Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)

vs. Little Boots vs. any other attempt for world domination. The synth-pop wars have gone gung ho without asking the remaining potential female superstar for her input. Florence Welch’s forthcoming debut, ‘Lungs’, on evidence of the dreamy collage of unearthly spirits she presents in ‘Rabbit Heart’, is a backlash, a shock to the system of what’s becoming a norm in pop. Her sound is raised from the forest, not the Korg. It’s refreshing, telling in fact that perhaps we’re getting a little tired of the ‘sound of today’.

But what truly makes ‘Rabbit Heart’ is Welch’s vocals. Her range convinces you of her talents far more than the previous two singles that helped cement her position as a new born talent. Paul Epworth’s production is like nothing he’s done before, removing the spiky guitars and the compression he’s become more accustomed to and subsequently incorporating alive percussion and a rapid pace. Combining both the natural and the manmade, the harp and the synth, there’s not too much focus on one or the other. Nor is there any attempt from Welch to completely steal the show. Far from timid, she comes across as vulnerable, breakable when asking herself: ‘I start spinning, slipping out of touch, was that the wrong pill to take?’.

The most intelligent, forward-thinking work to come from Florence and the Machine indeed it may be, but you can’t help but expect even more surprises from ‘Lungs’.