Precocious Brit Florence Welch fired a bullet into the head of the U.K. music scene in 2008 with the single "Kiss with a Fist," a punk-infused, perfectly juvenile summer anthem that had critics wiping the names Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, and Kate Nash from their vocabularies and replacing them with Florence and the Machine. While the comparisons were apt at the time, "Kiss with a Fist" turned out to be a red herring in the wake of the release of LUNGS, one of the most musically mature and emotionally mesmerizing albums of 2009. With an arsenal of weaponry that included the daring musicality of Kate Bush, the fearless delivery of Sin?ad O'Connor, and the dark, unhinged vulnerability of Fiona Apple, the London native crafted a debut that not only lived up to the machine-gun spray of buzz that heralded her arrival, but easily surpassed it. Like Kate Bush, Welch has little interest (for the most part) in traditional pop structures, and her songs are at their best when they see something sparkle in the woods and veer off of the main trail in pursuit. "Kiss with a Fist," as good as it is, pales in comparison to stand-out cuts like "Dog Days Are Over," "Hurricane Drunk," "Drumming Song," "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)," and "Cosmic Love," all of which are anchored to the earth by Welch's knockout voice (which hopefully in time will lose the occasional Natalie Merchant affectation), a truly impressive and intuitive trio of producers, and a backing band that sounds as intimate with the material as its creator. Personnel: Sally Herbert, Everton Nelson (violin); Bruce White (viola); Charlie Hugall, Isabell Summers, Florence Welch (drums, percussion).Audio Mixer: Chenzo Townsend.Recording information: Miloco; Space Cave; Strongroom 33; The Dairy Studios; The Garden; The Pool; The Smokehouse; The Synagogue.Illustrator: Orlando Weeks.Photographers: Tom Beard; Wade Fletcher. Format: Vinyl Genre: Rock, Pop Remember, for our lowest prices, always order directly from Joco Records! Track Listing: A1 Dog Days Are Over 4:13A2 Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) 3:52A3 I'm Not Calling You A Liar 3:05A4 Howl 3:34A5 Kiss With A Fist 2:04A6 Girl With One Eye 3:39B7 Drumming Song 3:44B8 Between Two Lungs 4:09B9 Cosmic Love 4:16B10 My Boy Builds Coffins 2:57B11 Hurricane Drunk 3:13B12 Blinding 4:40B13 You've Got The Love 2:49
