I wasn’t that sold on Florence and the Machine’s new album when it came out a couple of months back, and it didn’t help that I bought it only a few days before buying the new David Crowder Band, which is so good that you almost don’t need to listen to anything else for the next six months (that’s a slight exaggeration, but not by much). However, it’s grown on me since, being one of those albums that gets under your skin and then sticks…
That said, though, from the start I loved Shake It Out, which has got to be up there with the best songs that Florence Welch has ever written. It’s got some great lyrics, but I particularly love these at the start of the second verse:
And I am done with my graceless heart
So tonight I’m going to cut it out and then restart…
I think “graceless heart” is a fair summary of this thing that dwells in my chest, and I can’t be alone in wanting that put to death. I hear this song and for better or worse I hear a cry for something else, a freedom and liberty to dance that is stifled by our broken bodies and the devils that we carry on our backs.
There’s a beautiful live version below, where the power and fragility of Welch’s voice is accentuated by mournful strings and gospel backing singers:
FOOD, MUSIC, GOD 