{"id":517,"date":"2018-07-05T20:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T20:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2018\/2018\/07\/05\/hearing-aid-florence-and-the-machines-high-as-hope\/"},"modified":"2018-07-05T20:00:55","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T20:00:55","slug":"hearing-aid-florence-and-the-machines-high-as-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2018\/2018\/07\/05\/hearing-aid-florence-and-the-machines-high-as-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearing Aide: Florence and the Machine’s \u2018High as Hope\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florence and the Machine released their newest album High as Hope<\/em> on June 29 and it feels like a blast from the past, still holding that classic Florence and the Machine sound known and loved by fans. This fourth studio album by the them was released by Republic Records and Virgin EMI Records. Being a big Florence and the Machine fan, like many others, I waited to see what this new album would hold with a slightly skeptical eye. Not having been as impressed with their 2015 album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful<\/em> as much as I would have hoped, I wasn\u2019t sure how the new album would sound, but to my delight it didn\u2019t disappoint in the slightest.<\/p>\n

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Florence Welch courtesy of Florence and the Machine’s Instagram.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ten song album, which was produced by Welch herself along with Emile Haynie, had a very minimalistic feel to it that grounded it. The album started with the song, \u201cJune<\/a>\u201d which has these lines that say, \u201cAnd you’re so high, you’re so high, you had to be an angel\/ And I’m so high, I’m so high, I can see an angel\u201d which immediately tells the listener what this album is about. It\u2019s about struggle, it\u2019s about belief or lack thereof, it\u2019s about love, it\u2019s about drugs. The song then moves on to one of its singles, \u201cHunger,<\/a>\u201d which focuses on all these points. It talks about Welch\u2019s struggle with an eating disorder and has the lines saying, \u201cWe all have a hunger\u201d over and over, showing that every person has some struggle in their life. For her, it was an eating disorder but it could it be something different for someone else. Her voice leaves the listener with this aching feeling of knowing that\u2019s what pain suffered in solitude feels like. It\u2019s a pain we all know but seldom talk about.<\/p>\n