- Record Label: Island
- Release Date: Jun 2, 2015
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Jun 4, 2015How Big is Welch’s most accomplished album yet, primarily because she doesn’t rely solely on operatics to make herself heard. Welch may have gone slightly smaller with her sound, but her emotional depth and capacity for wonder remain gigantic.
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Jun 15, 2015The greater the risk, the greater the reward. And I can think of no better reward than this album.
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Jun 5, 2015How Big How Blue How Beautiful is a cathartic, devastatingly honest personal diary set to music.
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Jun 3, 2015It’s apparent she’s among her generation’s most deserving superstars, maintaining a stunning balance of technical mastery and sensitive lyricism.
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Jun 1, 2015How Big How Blue How Beautiful may just be a better record than the one it follows. It chisels at Ceremonials’ baroque marble sculpture to reveal something smaller and more appealing.
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MojoJun 10, 2015How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is more lyrically direct and honest, even if the lure of The Big Music remains strong for Welch. [Jul 2015, p.87]
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Jun 10, 2015How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is an arena-ready and festival-ready record that, in true Florence and the Machine fashion, is packed to the brim with alarmingly catchy hooks and astounding vocal theatrics from its vocalist.
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Jun 2, 2015With Beautiful, she sounds liberated in sprawl, veering from soulful shouters (“Delilah”) to measured electro-pop ballads (“St. Jude”). The breadth alone is impressive--but Welch shows even more growth as a vocalist.
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Jun 1, 2015How Big How Blue How Beautiful is a record about maneuvering around and through matters of the heart--sometimes triumphant, sometimes sad, and always deeply felt thanks to Welch acting as tour guide.
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Jun 1, 2015Welch still has the love--and the tunes--we need to see us through.
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Jun 1, 2015Whatever the lyrical content, musically every move feels like an affirming one. You’re never more than a short skip from something gigantic.
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May 29, 2015Even as the band’s music keeps expanding, Welch’s lyrics have narrowed in focus. They’re less abstract this time, more attuned to the vagaries of love.
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May 28, 2015On How Big How Blue How Beautiful, Welch refines a successful formula in a way that plays to her strengths without it being too familiar.
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Q MagazineMay 28, 2015Musically, she delivers that desired top-down, sunny LA drive-time feel. [Jul 2015, p.100]
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May 26, 2015No matter the mood and tempo, though, the Florence & The Machine heard on How Big How Blue How Beautiful is a newly self-aware one. It shows a different kind of mastery by allowing for a different kind of vulnerability, an especially delicate balancing act for a young woman in pop music.
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May 26, 2015Overflowing with stately songwriting and lyrical craftsmanship, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful makes for a restrained but joyful return, and a collection that will last long after Welch’s broken bones are mended.
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Oct 8, 2015Third LP How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful dispenses with that ethos [positivity on the aftermath of heartbreak], embracing the raging/wallowing period that's delivered through biblical and Greek mythological references.
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Jun 2, 2015This is a huge, sturdy record, built for arenas and it's richly and carefully enough constructed to endure the extensive exposure Welch's heartache is going to get over the course of this summer.
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Jul 9, 2015Some of the album's most memorable moments come when the power is dialed down, as with the moving "Long & Lost." But there's no denying how captivating this group can be when the arrangement allows them to fly free.
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Jun 1, 2015It's a voice built for drama, and on this album its emotional range has never been wider.
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Jun 11, 2015With all these mammoth tunes blaring out with pride, a few songs slip to the wayside.
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Jun 4, 2015The results are brilliant, but the album too often focuses on the latter two-thirds of the album title at the expense of the first.
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Jun 2, 2015Welch isn't the most rhythmic singer; she's more about powerful held notes and dramatic articulation, and her rock moves have sometimes felt fussy in the past. But here, she punches like a prizefighter.
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Jun 2, 2015Although the softer moments here are only soft in comparison to the dazzling cacophony that usually accompanies her songs, Welch does seem more confident here letting her pipes do the heavy lifting.
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Jun 1, 2015She’s gone from making an album that felt in constant peril of collapsing under its own weight to one that carries her predilection for drama with genuine confidence--for now, at least, that’s redemption enough.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 626 out of 703
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Mixed: 23 out of 703
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Negative: 54 out of 703
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