POP/ROCK: Florence + the Machine, "Ceremonials" (Island)
Sometimes the toughest challenge for a singer like Florence Welch is to learn how to wield the kind of pulmonary power that can make the heavens quake. On Florence + the Machine's 2009 debut, "Lungs," the flame-haired countess of theatrical art-pop voraciously tore into songs with her throaty wail. For all her prodigious talent, it sometimes didn't seem Welch was listening to the very song she was singing, she was so busy filling it with noise.
On her follow-up, "Ceremonials," Welch has struck a fantastic and necessary balance. She's found a way to honor her Bjorkian appetites for lavish orchestral spectacle while finding the depth and subtlety of her voice. She's become a better actor, a keener listener and still manages to let it rip on occasion. But she also knows when to hush up, like at the close of "Spectrum," when Tom Monger's harp gorgeously flutters and dips around her.
Welch wrote many of the songs on "Ceremonials" with Paul Epworth, Britain's premier producer. He co-wrote and produced "Rolling in the Deep," a master class in mounting drama, from the chart-topping Adele. The same hush-then-explode dynamics are on display here, with the hypnotizing "Seven Devils" as a spooky stand-out.
But other songwriters know how to mine Welch's multifaceted voice as well. James Ford, from the purist dance collective Simian Mobile Disco, collaborated with her on "Breaking Down," which sounds like the final missive of a stir-crazy ice princess from her frozen palace. Welch delivers the phrase "I'm breaking down again" with wicked nonchalance, proof that not every drama needs to be blasted on the big screen to get our attention.
- MARGARET WAPPLER, LOS ANGELES TIMES
COUNTRY: Vince Gill, "Guitar Slinger" (MCA Nashville)
Although best known as a balladeer, Gill really is quite the guitar slinger. "Yeah, I might have slowed down a little / But, buddy, I can still bring her," he boasts on the roadhouse romp of a title track.
That's for sure. The material on "Guitar Slinger" allows for some stretching out instrumentally to prove that point. As usual with Gill, however, the playing is in the service of the songs (probably one of the reasons he's not as well-known for his six-string prowess). And beyond that title track, which presents Gill at his loosest and funniest, most of these numbers find the writer and singer his usual soulful self.
