Florence + The Machine

A few weeks ago I mentioned Florence + The Machine, listing it as an album I would come back to and write more about.

A couple of months back I got the chance to speak to Florence Welch aka Florence + The Machine. Her album seemed to arrive out of nowhere - as did her career. She worked on her debut, Lungs, for some time. Recording several different versions of the songs, releasing singles before the album - some of the songs on the finished album are different from earlier attempts which can be heard on YouTube.

The 22-year-old laughed down the line when I mentioned the amount of YouTube footage there is of her, specifically this video of her dancing to Beyonce ("oh, that one is damn embarrassing - it's ridiculous to think that that's there. I just have to laugh. But I really do wonder what I was thinking"). But she's very aware of the importance of YouTube as a medium, as a way of spreading the message.

"I guess at my age I don't even think about it - I have grown up and learnt to use the internet as technology is evolving. I'm not adapting to it but actually evolving with it, so to be able to share performances and to create videos and release material online is powerful, sure, but it's just part of the game now, part of the way to do it."

The press release that arrived with Florence's album told of how she was discovered singing Motown covers outside a public toilet. She confidently tells me that she has always written songs ("from the age of 12 or so"). And that she never progressed from writing poetry and stories to songs, "it was always about songs, I heard the song in my heard and often just shouted it out loud, writing it down after. From there I started to work on songs, to work on the writing. The writing part has always been a fascination, crafting it, working on it different ways."

Lungs features songs that Florence wrote over the last couple of years, but also goes back to include material from when she was still in her teens. "A song like My Boy Builds Coffins, that's something I wrote when I was about 17. And it's a true story." She breaks off for some laughter, explaining that her songs all come from true stories, from ideas and situations that happen to her and are then drawn out with imagination.

"My Boy Builds Coffins was about a boyfriend I had at the time who was an art student and he had this project, he had to make a coffin and I wrote that song because he was too busy to, you know, take me out for an ice-cream or whatever...he had to work on the coffin and so I just imagined this scenario of who actually builds coffins and who do they build them for. We're all going to need a coffin sooner or later, aren't we?"

Florence + The Machine was always the name for the band - but the actual band has only recently been solidified. "I wanted to record the album with a flexible lineup; taking time to record things and re-record and rewrite and rework. But now we are a fixed lineup and it's a great pleasure to work with a band of friends; to actually hang out with friends on the road. Anyone who has played music knows that it should be a lot of fun but it can also - often - be very hard, so I'm chuffed to be with me mates; me pals."

The album is remarkable - there's a powerful feeling to the songs, one that grows with repeated listens. I now feel like this debut album by an emerging singer plays out like a greatest hits; in an era of singles and in a time when we are told of the death of the album format, of the album as an idea, it is refreshing to hear an album that really works; that feels like it was put together to be an album.

Florence says: "Part of the reason I re-recorded the songs in some cases and even decided to leave off some songs that I had been playing live in the buildup was because this record started to take a shape as we were making it, after the songs were written and compiled and I wanted to go with that. To make an album as a piece of art - as a whole - was always really important to me."

And then, just to break up the serious talk, she offers, "I'm basically just stoked to say that at 22 I have an album out. I'm doing pretty well, I guess, to say I have an album out that I am pleased with. I'll take me time," she adds, "I won't be rushing the second album. I'll be waiting until I'm at least 24."

So what is so great about this album? Well, for me, it just sounded fresh. I was blown away by this performance. This song captivated - and the performance of it. Watching a young woman who seemed out of depth - but then the voice just soars. That song, Between Two Lungs (essentially the album's title track) is very much the centrepiece of the record. It's a huge sound that the album works toward, each song increasing in intensity to arrive at the top of the hill. The descent is as important and strategic as the ascent - and every bit as rewarding.

Another thing that sat with me was the writing. The fact that we hear songs about people building coffins, the epic sweep of Dog Days Are Over, the dark humour of Kiss With a Fist. And of course there's Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), which possibly started the near-incessant round of Kate Bush comparisons.

Florence says "of course Kate Bush is great, I listen to her records, I like what she does. But I certainly wouldn't think of her as an influence - not to what I am trying to do. I mean we don't sound at all alike, but if people are trying to compare me because of parts of the sound and because of the writing, well then I'm very honoured because she is great."

A couple of months on and I am still playing the album most weeks - I think I have listened to it more than any other record released this year. The CD was stolen and turned up in someone else's collection but I have it on the iPod where I listen to it when I'm working, when I'm at the gym, walking home, cooking, driving...and I have a vinyl copy too.

For me this album is very similar in its scope (rather than in its actual sound) to Nicole Atkins's Neptune City, which I loved so much in 2008. So I am interested to know if any of you like it. Have you heard it? Would you like to check it out based on hearing some samples here and hearing some of what Florence had to say? Or did you try it and it wasn't your thing?

If you are a fan you might be pleased to know that she could well be on her way to New Zealand (well, Auckland at any rate) with The Machine.

I asked the obvious question you feel you have to ask when talking to an international musician with one album under their belt: will we see you out here in New Zealand?

The answer: "Yeah, definitely, around January I reckon..."

Ah, so Big Day Out then?

"Yeah, I think so, it's not definite, I don't know if I am allowed to say for sure, but I think so...and I hope so...until then we're doing plenty of shows around Europe. But definitely hoping to make it down your way and very keen to be there for the Big Day Out."

I guess we'll see if that happens soon enough. Until then I recommend you check out Lungs. And if you have already, share your thoughts below.

Oh and besides dancing to Beyonce, Florence covers her as well.

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