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| rev10 = ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]''
| rev10 = ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]''
| rev10Score = (8/10)<ref name="spin"/>
| rev10Score = (8/10)<ref name="spin"/>
| rev11 = ''[[The Music Service]]''
| rev11Score = {{Rating|7|10}}<ref name="theMusicService"/>
}}
}}
''Ceremonials'' has received positive reviews from most music critics. At [[Metacritic]], which assigns a [[standard score|normalised]] rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an [[weighted mean|average]] score of 75, based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref name="MC">{{cite web |url=http://www.metacritic.com/music/ceremonials |title=Ceremonials – Florence + the Machine |publisher=[[Metacritic]]. [[CBS Interactive]] |accessdate=30 October 2011}}</ref> Laura Foster of ''[[Clash (magazine)|Clash]]'' magazine called the album a "confident, cohesive effort" and believed that "[t]he steady hand of Paul Epworth on production has helped Florence to take the winning formula of her distinctive vocals and melodies, the twinkling harps and thundering drums, and augment it with string arrangements, subtle electro touches, and gospel choirs."<ref>{{cite web |last=Foster |first=Laura |url=http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/florence-and-the-machine-ceremonials |title=Florence And The Machine – Ceremonials |work=[[Clash (magazine)|Clash]] |date=24 October 2011 |accessdate=27 October 2011}}</ref> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''{{'}}s Kyle Anderson praised it as a "confident, unflinching tour de force" and commented, "If her acclaimed 2009 debut, ''Lungs'', was a scrappy shrine to survival and empowerment, its follow-up is a baroque cathedral, bedecked with ornate tapestries made of ghostly choirs, pagan-rhythmic splendor, and a whole lot of harp. And though that sounds like a mess of [[New Age music|New Age]] goop, ''Ceremonials'' genuinely rocks."<ref name="ew.com">{{cite web |last=Anderson |first=Kyle |url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20540085,00.html |title=Ceremonials (2011): Florence + The Machine |work=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |publisher=[[Time Inc.]] |date=26 October 2011 |accessdate=28 October 2011}}</ref> [[Allmusic]] critic James Christopher Monger awarded the album four-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote, "Bigger and bolder than 2009's excellent ''Lungs'', ''Ceremonials'' rolls in like fog over the [[River Thames|Thames]], doling out a heavy-handed mix of [[Britpop|Brit-pop]]-infused [[neo soul|neo-soul]] anthems and lush, movie trailer-ready ballads that fuse the bluesy, electro-despair of [[Adele (singer)|Adele]] with the ornate, gothic melodrama of [[Kate Bush]] and ''[[Floodland]]''-era [[The Sisters of Mercy|Sisters of Mercy]]."<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web |last=Monger |first=James Christopher |url={{Allmusic|class=album|id=ceremonials-r2302229/review|pure_url=yes}} |title=Ceremonials – Florence + the Machine |publisher=[[Allmusic]]. [[Rovi Corporation]] |accessdate=30 October 2011}}</ref> Barry Nicolson of the ''[[NME]]'' rated the album eight out of ten, arguing that "by taking what worked about ''Lungs'' and amplifying those qualities to a natural, satisfying conclusion, Florence has made a near-great pop record that should afford her the creative freedom to do whatever the hell she wants next time around."<ref name="nme">{{cite web |last=Nicolson |first=Barry |url=http://www.nme.com/reviews/florence-and-the-machine/12419 |title=Album Review: Florence And The Machine – 'Ceremonials' |work=[[NME]] |publisher=[[IPC Media]] |date=28 October 2011 |accessdate=31 October 2011}}</ref>
''Ceremonials'' has received positive reviews from most music critics. At [[Metacritic]], which assigns a [[standard score|normalised]] rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an [[weighted mean|average]] score of 75, based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref name="MC">{{cite web |url=http://www.metacritic.com/music/ceremonials |title=Ceremonials – Florence + the Machine |publisher=[[Metacritic]]. [[CBS Interactive]] |accessdate=30 October 2011}}</ref> Laura Foster of ''[[Clash (magazine)|Clash]]'' magazine called the album a "confident, cohesive effort" and believed that "[t]he steady hand of Paul Epworth on production has helped Florence to take the winning formula of her distinctive vocals and melodies, the twinkling harps and thundering drums, and augment it with string arrangements, subtle electro touches, and gospel choirs."<ref>{{cite web |last=Foster |first=Laura |url=http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/florence-and-the-machine-ceremonials |title=Florence And The Machine – Ceremonials |work=[[Clash (magazine)|Clash]] |date=24 October 2011 |accessdate=27 October 2011}}</ref> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''{{'}}s Kyle Anderson praised it as a "confident, unflinching tour de force" and commented, "If her acclaimed 2009 debut, ''Lungs'', was a scrappy shrine to survival and empowerment, its follow-up is a baroque cathedral, bedecked with ornate tapestries made of ghostly choirs, pagan-rhythmic splendor, and a whole lot of harp. And though that sounds like a mess of [[New Age music|New Age]] goop, ''Ceremonials'' genuinely rocks."<ref name="ew.com">{{cite web |last=Anderson |first=Kyle |url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20540085,00.html |title=Ceremonials (2011): Florence + The Machine |work=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |publisher=[[Time Inc.]] |date=26 October 2011 |accessdate=28 October 2011}}</ref> [[Allmusic]] critic James Christopher Monger awarded the album four-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote, "Bigger and bolder than 2009's excellent ''Lungs'', ''Ceremonials'' rolls in like fog over the [[River Thames|Thames]], doling out a heavy-handed mix of [[Britpop|Brit-pop]]-infused [[neo soul|neo-soul]] anthems and lush, movie trailer-ready ballads that fuse the bluesy, electro-despair of [[Adele (singer)|Adele]] with the ornate, gothic melodrama of [[Kate Bush]] and ''[[Floodland]]''-era [[The Sisters of Mercy|Sisters of Mercy]]."<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web |last=Monger |first=James Christopher |url={{Allmusic|class=album|id=ceremonials-r2302229/review|pure_url=yes}} |title=Ceremonials – Florence + the Machine |publisher=[[Allmusic]]. [[Rovi Corporation]] |accessdate=30 October 2011}}</ref> Barry Nicolson of the ''[[NME]]'' rated the album eight out of ten, arguing that "by taking what worked about ''Lungs'' and amplifying those qualities to a natural, satisfying conclusion, Florence has made a near-great pop record that should afford her the creative freedom to do whatever the hell she wants next time around."<ref name="nme">{{cite web |last=Nicolson |first=Barry |url=http://www.nme.com/reviews/florence-and-the-machine/12419 |title=Album Review: Florence And The Machine – 'Ceremonials' |work=[[NME]] |publisher=[[IPC Media]] |date=28 October 2011 |accessdate=31 October 2011}}</ref>
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''[[Daily Mail]]''{{'}}s Adrian Thrills gave the album five stars and stated, "Letting her vivid imagination run wild, she has produced a cohesive album that explores possibilities her debut merely hinted at; ''Ceremonials'' is not just bigger, it is better." He further commented that the album is "different, framing Florence's whooping vocals with pealing church bells, twinkling harps, African chants and the kind of chugging, orchestral strings beloved by [[Arcade Fire]]."<ref>{{cite web |last=Thrills |first=Adrian |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-2054423/Florence--The-Machine-Ceremonials-review-Difficult-second-album-We-just-went-Flo.html |title='Difficult' second album? We just went with the Flo |work=[[Daily Mail]] |publisher=[[Mail Online]] |date=27 October 2011 |accessdate=27 October 2011}}</ref> Michael Hann of ''[[The Guardian]]'' concluded that the album "always sounds wonderful—producer Paul Epworth has created a warm, soft, four-poster featherbed of sound for Welch to emote over—but it never really satisfies. One yearns for Welch's wonderful voice to be delivering lines of more import than the nonsense she's often delivering here."<ref name="guardian">{{cite web |last=Hann |first=Michael |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/27/florence-and-the-machine-ceremonials-review |title=Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials – review |work=[[The Guardian]] |publisher=[[guardian.co.uk]] |date=27 October 2011 |accessdate=28 October 2011}}</ref> [[Slant Magazine]]'s Matthew Cole wrote that "[t]he first four tracks of ''Ceremonials'' are essentially flawless", but remarked that the album "can't help but get weaker as it continues, a fact which owes less to the quality of the songwriting than to the album's length [...] and a far less dynamic second act."<ref name="slant">{{cite web |last=Cole |first=Matthew |url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/florence-and-the-machine-ceremonials/2666 |title=Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials |publisher=[[Slant Magazine]] |date=30 October 2011 |accessdate=31 October 2011}}</ref> Andy Gill of ''[[The Independent]]'' expressed, "[I]n cementing one style, some of the possibilities offered by ''Lungs'' have been choked off. The only time [Welch] and The Machine stray from the formula is the [[Krautrock]]-disco motorik of 'Spectrum'; elsewhere, declamatory piano chords and burring organ underpin the banked, soaring vocals that are her trademark [...] It's all impressive, though 'Seven Devils', with Halloween-esque keyboard, overdoes the corny horror melodrama terribly."<ref name="independent">{{cite web |last=Gill |first=Andy |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-florence--the-machine-ceremonials-island-2376712.html |title=Album: Florence + the Machine, Ceremonials (Island ) |work=[[The Independent]] |publisher=Independent Print Limited |date=28 October 2011 |accessdate=30 October 2011}}</ref> Alix Buscovic of [[BBC Music]] felt that the album "offers the pomp, but somehow not quite the power, of Welch's debut: this is all grandeur without any grace. The more weight and length [...] given to the songs, the less impact they have and the more wearied they leave you."<ref>{{cite web |last=Buscovic |first=Alix |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qwcg |title=Review of Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials |publisher=[[BBC Music]]. [[BBC Online]] |date=27 October 2011 |accessdate=30 October 2011}}</ref> [[Pitchfork Media]]'s Ryan Dombal was equally unimpressed, writing, "Instead of ''Lungs''' largely charming yet discombobulating diversity, ''Ceremonials'' suffers from a repetitiveness that's akin to looking at a skyline filled with 100-story behemoths lined-up one after the other, blocking out everything but their own size."<ref name="pitchfork">{{cite web |last=Dombal |first=Ryan |url=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/reviews/albums/16004-ceremonials/ |title=Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials |publisher=[[Pitchfork Media]] |date=3 November 2011‎ |accessdate=3 November 2011‎}}</ref>
''[[Daily Mail]]''{{'}}s Adrian Thrills gave the album five stars and stated, "Letting her vivid imagination run wild, she has produced a cohesive album that explores possibilities her debut merely hinted at; ''Ceremonials'' is not just bigger, it is better." He further commented that the album is "different, framing Florence's whooping vocals with pealing church bells, twinkling harps, African chants and the kind of chugging, orchestral strings beloved by [[Arcade Fire]]."<ref>{{cite web |last=Thrills |first=Adrian |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-2054423/Florence--The-Machine-Ceremonials-review-Difficult-second-album-We-just-went-Flo.html |title='Difficult' second album? We just went with the Flo |work=[[Daily Mail]] |publisher=[[Mail Online]] |date=27 October 2011 |accessdate=27 October 2011}}</ref> Michael Hann of ''[[The Guardian]]'' concluded that the album "always sounds wonderful—producer Paul Epworth has created a warm, soft, four-poster featherbed of sound for Welch to emote over—but it never really satisfies. One yearns for Welch's wonderful voice to be delivering lines of more import than the nonsense she's often delivering here."<ref name="guardian">{{cite web |last=Hann |first=Michael |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/27/florence-and-the-machine-ceremonials-review |title=Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials – review |work=[[The Guardian]] |publisher=[[guardian.co.uk]] |date=27 October 2011 |accessdate=28 October 2011}}</ref> [[Slant Magazine]]'s Matthew Cole wrote that "[t]he first four tracks of ''Ceremonials'' are essentially flawless", but remarked that the album "can't help but get weaker as it continues, a fact which owes less to the quality of the songwriting than to the album's length [...] and a far less dynamic second act."<ref name="slant">{{cite web |last=Cole |first=Matthew |url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/florence-and-the-machine-ceremonials/2666 |title=Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials |publisher=[[Slant Magazine]] |date=30 October 2011 |accessdate=31 October 2011}}</ref> Andy Gill of ''[[The Independent]]'' expressed, "[I]n cementing one style, some of the possibilities offered by ''Lungs'' have been choked off. The only time [Welch] and The Machine stray from the formula is the [[Krautrock]]-disco motorik of 'Spectrum'; elsewhere, declamatory piano chords and burring organ underpin the banked, soaring vocals that are her trademark [...] It's all impressive, though 'Seven Devils', with Halloween-esque keyboard, overdoes the corny horror melodrama terribly."<ref name="independent">{{cite web |last=Gill |first=Andy |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-florence--the-machine-ceremonials-island-2376712.html |title=Album: Florence + the Machine, Ceremonials (Island ) |work=[[The Independent]] |publisher=Independent Print Limited |date=28 October 2011 |accessdate=30 October 2011}}</ref> Alix Buscovic of [[BBC Music]] felt that the album "offers the pomp, but somehow not quite the power, of Welch's debut: this is all grandeur without any grace. The more weight and length [...] given to the songs, the less impact they have and the more wearied they leave you."<ref>{{cite web |last=Buscovic |first=Alix |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qwcg |title=Review of Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials |publisher=[[BBC Music]]. [[BBC Online]] |date=27 October 2011 |accessdate=30 October 2011}}</ref> [[Pitchfork Media]]'s Ryan Dombal was equally unimpressed, writing, "Instead of ''Lungs''' largely charming yet discombobulating diversity, ''Ceremonials'' suffers from a repetitiveness that's akin to looking at a skyline filled with 100-story behemoths lined-up one after the other, blocking out everything but their own size."<ref name="pitchfork">{{cite web |last=Dombal |first=Ryan |url=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/reviews/albums/16004-ceremonials/ |title=Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials |publisher=[[Pitchfork Media]] |date=3 November 2011‎ |accessdate=3 November 2011‎}}</ref>

''[[The Music Service]]''{{'}}s John Service praised Ceremonials for the more beinga more "well-rounded" album 2009's Lungs, but also cited that the more intense tone of the album and descrived Ceremonials as "daunting" listening experience, and he commented that it lacked a track as joyous as Cosmic Love or Dog days Are Over.<ref anme="theMusicService">{{cite web |last=Service |first=John |url=http://themusicservice.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/album-review-florence-the-machineceremonials// |title=Album review: Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials |publisher=[[The Music Service]] |date=30 October 2011‎ |accessdate=3 November 2011‎}}</ref>


==Commercial performance==
==Commercial performance==

Revision as of 10:40, 16 November 2011

This article is about the Florence and the Machine album. For the ritual, see Ceremony.

Untitled

Ceremonials is the second studio album by English indie pop band Florence and the Machine, released in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2011 by Island Records. The album is noted for having a larger, more baroque pop sound than its predecessor, Lungs, with critics drawing comparisons to art rock artist Kate Bush. Preceded by the singles "What the Water Gave Me" and "Shake It Out", Ceremonials debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the band's second consecutive number-one album in the UK. English novelist Emma Forrest contributed an essay to the album, which can be found in the booklet of the CD edition.

Background and development

NME magazine confirmed that after the release of the song "Heavy in Your Arms" for the soundtrack to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Welch entered the studio for a two-week session to record with producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Bloc Party), with whom she worked on the band's debut album Lungs (2009). She said that the two recordings that came out of that session were inspired by science because "a lot of her family are doctors or trying to become doctors, so much of her conversations are fixated on medical stuff."[1] One of the tracks, "Strangeness and Charm" (now exclusive to the deluxe edition), was debuted on 2 May 2010 at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, during their Cosmic Love Tour.[2] The song was later recorded live at the Hammersmith Apollo on another stop of The Cosmic Love Tour and was released on a deluxe re-release of Lungs titled Between Two Lungs along with other live tracks and previously unreleased B-sides. Welch describes the song as "about seven minutes long and pretty relentless" and also "dancey, but it's also dark as well",[2] featuring "relentless drums and heavy, droning bass."[1]

In an interview with the Gibson website on 17 February 2011, guitarist Rob Ackroyd stated, "Work on the second album has begun with Paul Epworth and there is talk of booking out Abbey Road for a month in April/May to record."[3] In June 2011, Epworth told BBC 6 Music that the album would probably be finished "by the end of July" and described the sound as "a lot less indie and lot more soulful".[4] He also indicated that there were sixteen songs up for inclusion on the album, but that this would be reduced upon the time of release.[4]

During their North American tour, Florence and the Machine debuted "What the Water Gave Me" at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California on 12 June 2011.[5] On 23 August 2011, the song was released on iTunes as a buzz single from the album,[6] along with an accompanying video on their VEVO channel on YouTube.[7]

On 23 August 2011, Pitchfork Media confirmed after the release of "What the Water Gave Me" that the album has the band working solely with Epworth.[8] On 12 September 2011, Alan Cross confirmed that Florence and the Machine's second album would be titled Ceremonials. He also commented on the album by saying: "I've heard a little more than half the record and it is big, soulful and powerful. Think Adele or Tori Amos but with some serious Kate Bush DNA, especially with the rhythm section."[9]

Regarding the album's title, Welch told MTV News: "It was an art installation done in the '70s, this video piece all done on Super 8, this big procession of kind of coquette-style hippies and all these different colored robes and masks, and it was all to do with color, really saturated, brightly colored pastas and balloons. I saw it a couple years ago, and it was called 'Ceremonials' and then, like, Roman numerals after it. And the word sort of stuck with me, and I think the whole idea of performance, and kind of putting on this outfit and going out almost to find some sort of exorcism or absolution, to kind of get outside yourself, there's a sense of ceremony to it."[10] Welch also revealed that she wanted to call the album Violence, stating: "I wanted to make an album that sounded like the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, the violence mixed with the classical Shakespearean drama mixed with the pop and the pulp, extreme neon stuff."[11] In an interview with The Guardian, she described the album as "much bigger" and categorised its genre as "chamber soul", a mixture of soul music and chamber pop. She also discussed plans to perform at multiple festivals in 2012, describing this as her favourite way to perform live.[12]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic(75/100)[13]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[14]
The Daily Telegraph[15]
Entertainment Weekly(A)[16]
The Guardian[17]
The Independent[18]
NME(8/10)[19]
Pitchfork Media(6.0/10)[20]
Rolling Stone[21]
Slant Magazine[22]
Spin(8/10)[23]
The Music Service[24]

Ceremonials has received positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 75, based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13] Laura Foster of Clash magazine called the album a "confident, cohesive effort" and believed that "[t]he steady hand of Paul Epworth on production has helped Florence to take the winning formula of her distinctive vocals and melodies, the twinkling harps and thundering drums, and augment it with string arrangements, subtle electro touches, and gospel choirs."[25] Entertainment Weekly's Kyle Anderson praised it as a "confident, unflinching tour de force" and commented, "If her acclaimed 2009 debut, Lungs, was a scrappy shrine to survival and empowerment, its follow-up is a baroque cathedral, bedecked with ornate tapestries made of ghostly choirs, pagan-rhythmic splendor, and a whole lot of harp. And though that sounds like a mess of New Age goop, Ceremonials genuinely rocks."[16] Allmusic critic James Christopher Monger awarded the album four-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote, "Bigger and bolder than 2009's excellent Lungs, Ceremonials rolls in like fog over the Thames, doling out a heavy-handed mix of Brit-pop-infused neo-soul anthems and lush, movie trailer-ready ballads that fuse the bluesy, electro-despair of Adele with the ornate, gothic melodrama of Kate Bush and Floodland-era Sisters of Mercy."[14] Barry Nicolson of the NME rated the album eight out of ten, arguing that "by taking what worked about Lungs and amplifying those qualities to a natural, satisfying conclusion, Florence has made a near-great pop record that should afford her the creative freedom to do whatever the hell she wants next time around."[19]

Rolling Stone writer Jody Rosen commented that the album contains "turbulent ballads, powered by booming drums and vocal chorales rising like distant thunder, full of Welch's banshee wails. The music touches on Celtic melodies, bluesy rock stomps, nods to goth and gospel. But the wind never stops howling." He continued, "This is a very British record, drawing on a tradition of iconoclastic U.K. pop that stretches from Kate Bush and Siouxsie and the Banshees to PJ Harvey."[21] Margaret Wappler of the Los Angeles Times gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars, stating that "Welch has struck a fantastic and necessary balance. She's found a way to honor her Bjorkian appetites for lavish orchestral spectacle while finding the depth and subtlety of her voice."[26] The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick gave Ceremonials four out of five stars and viewed it as "a giant, fluid, emotionally resonant album, performed as if Welch's very sanity is at stake", adding that "[c]ontrary to the name she has given her band, the Machine feel organic and human, providing an epic, full-blooded soundtrack to Welch's voodoo, in which rhythm, melody and chanting are employed to drive out neuroses and insecurities, characterised as ghosts and devils."[15] Rob Harvilla of Spin magazine raved that on Ceremonials, Welch is "a bloodied, bloodying songbird in a gilded cage of immaculately crafted, slow-burn, chest-beating empowerment anthems, gripping steel bars that her elegantly volcanic voice could shred 
at any moment", while noting that "[s]he's so much better than her material that her material is rendered immaterial."[23] In a review for The Observer, Kitty Empire gave the album three out of five stars and opined that "on the gale-force Ceremonials the vocals often sound multitracked" and that "[t]he production is high-church—harps, bells, shimmers, strings and keyboards that seem to breed over the course of the album. The cresting choruses are never less than heroic. As an arty eccentric, Welch is sometimes lazily compared to Kate Bush. Here, though, that tenuous link works. The album's boofing drum sound comes straight out of Bush's 80s output; on balance, a neat trick."[27]

Daily Mail's Adrian Thrills gave the album five stars and stated, "Letting her vivid imagination run wild, she has produced a cohesive album that explores possibilities her debut merely hinted at; Ceremonials is not just bigger, it is better." He further commented that the album is "different, framing Florence's whooping vocals with pealing church bells, twinkling harps, African chants and the kind of chugging, orchestral strings beloved by Arcade Fire."[28] Michael Hann of The Guardian concluded that the album "always sounds wonderful—producer Paul Epworth has created a warm, soft, four-poster featherbed of sound for Welch to emote over—but it never really satisfies. One yearns for Welch's wonderful voice to be delivering lines of more import than the nonsense she's often delivering here."[17] Slant Magazine's Matthew Cole wrote that "[t]he first four tracks of Ceremonials are essentially flawless", but remarked that the album "can't help but get weaker as it continues, a fact which owes less to the quality of the songwriting than to the album's length [...] and a far less dynamic second act."[22] Andy Gill of The Independent expressed, "[I]n cementing one style, some of the possibilities offered by Lungs have been choked off. The only time [Welch] and The Machine stray from the formula is the Krautrock-disco motorik of 'Spectrum'; elsewhere, declamatory piano chords and burring organ underpin the banked, soaring vocals that are her trademark [...] It's all impressive, though 'Seven Devils', with Halloween-esque keyboard, overdoes the corny horror melodrama terribly."[18] Alix Buscovic of BBC Music felt that the album "offers the pomp, but somehow not quite the power, of Welch's debut: this is all grandeur without any grace. The more weight and length [...] given to the songs, the less impact they have and the more wearied they leave you."[29] Pitchfork Media's Ryan Dombal was equally unimpressed, writing, "Instead of Lungs' largely charming yet discombobulating diversity, Ceremonials suffers from a repetitiveness that's akin to looking at a skyline filled with 100-story behemoths lined-up one after the other, blocking out everything but their own size."[20]

The Music Service's John Service praised Ceremonials for the more beinga more "well-rounded" album 2009's Lungs, but also cited that the more intense tone of the album and descrived Ceremonials as "daunting" listening experience, and he commented that it lacked a track as joyous as Cosmic Love or Dog days Are Over.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

Commercial performance

Ceremonials debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling approximately 38,000 copies in its first two days of release and 94,050 copies altogether in its first week.[30][31] It fell to number three the following week, selling 58,278 copies.[32] The album also debuted at number one in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) in its first week of sales.[33][34][35] Selling 105,000 units in its opening week in the United States, the album entered the Billboard 200 at number six,[36] while debuting atop the Rock Albums, Digital Albums and Alternative Albums charts.[37]

Singles

  • "What the Water Gave Me" was released on 23 August 2011 as the first single from Ceremonials.[6] The song attained moderate chart success, entering the UK Singles Chart at number twenty-four for the week of 28 August 2011.[38]
  • "Shake It Out" was released in the UK on 30 September 2011 as the album's second official single,[39] and premiered exclusively on XFM London on 14 September 2011.[40]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)ProducerLength
1."Only If for a Night"Florence Welch, Paul EpworthEpworth4:58
2."Shake It Out"Welch, EpworthEpworth4:37
3."What the Water Gave Me"Welch, Francis WhiteEpworth5:33
4."Never Let Me Go"Welch, EpworthEpworth4:31
5."Breaking Down"WelchEpworth3:49
6."Lover to Lover"WelchEpworth4:02
7."No Light, No Light"Welch, Isabella SummersEpworth4:34
8."Seven Devils"Welch, EpworthEpworth5:03
9."Heartlines"Welch, EpworthEpworth5:01
10."Spectrum"Welch, EpworthEpworth5:11
11."All This and Heaven Too"Welch, SummersEpworth4:05
12."Leave My Body"Welch, EpworthEpworth4:34
Deluxe edition bonus disc[42][43]
No.TitleWriter(s)ProducerLength
1."Remain Nameless"Welch, SummersSummers, Ben Roulston*4:01
2."Strangeness and Charm"Welch, EpworthEpworth5:16
3."Bedroom Hymns"WelchEpworth3:02
4."What the Water Gave Me" (Demo)Welch, WhiteWhite3:53
5."Landscape" (Demo)Welch, EpworthJames Ford4:02
6."Heartlines" (Acoustic)Welch, EpworthCharlie Hugall5:32
7."Shake It Out" (Acoustic)Welch, EpworthHugall4:12
8."Breaking Down" (Acoustic)WelchHugall3:31
9."What the Water Gave Me" (video)  5:33

(*) denotes additional producer

Charts

Release history

Country Date Label Edition
Australia[64][65] 28 October 2011 Universal Music Standard, deluxe
Germany[66][67]
Netherlands[68][69]
Poland[70]
Ireland[71][72] Island Records
United Kingdom[73][42] 31 October 2011
France[74][75] Universal Music
Italy[76] Standard
Canada[77][78] 1 November 2011 Standard, deluxe
United States[79][80] Universal Republic Records
Italy[81] 8 November 2011 Universal Music Deluxe
Brazil[82] 16 November 2011 Standard

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