Florence Welch may have had the biggest-selling album by a new "alternative" artist this year, but it was hardly achieved by safe-and-sound commercial sense. Stylistically, Lungs wasn't remotely in hock to Lily or Amy, and there were no concessions to mellifluous pop-soul à la Duffy or Adele. If anything, the 22-year-old Londoner's debut album harked back to the days when artists of the calibre of Kate Bush or Björk could reach the higher echelons of the charts with music that's both uncompromising and inventive.
Lungs was powerful, but deceptively easy on the ear, too. You would hardly know, on casual inspection, that the majority of the songs were about violence and death. Sometimes, Welch came across like a homicidal Enya, her pure tones and the tasteful keyboard chords and harp glissandos at odds with the more visceral imagery. At other times, she recalled Sinéad O'Connor at her most raw and emotional, only in a more innovative musical setting.
Some of the credit for this must go to the three producers: Paul Epworth creates lush, epic soundscapes in which she can vocally roam free, notably on Cosmic Love and Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up); James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco) puts her in a more gently orchestrated context on I'm Not Calling You a Liar and a swelling, rhythmic one on Drumming Song; former Pulp bassist Steve Mackey strips things back for the White Stripes-ish Girl With One Eye and the explosive Kiss With a Fist, one of five singles on Lungs.
We'd like to see Ellie Goulding try to match this.
