Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.
Rock is rough. Rock is personal. Rock is emotional. “No Light, No Light” exhibits all of these things. There’s nothing delicate about it. In it Florence hits on themes that seem so core to the human condition, yet it’s a little surprising that no other artist has been able to articulate it as clearly and poignantly as her.
While Ceremonials isn’t one of my favorite Florence albums, it contains at least four or five of my favorite songs from the artist. What’s particularly impressive about “No Light, No Light” is the level of versatility and creativity from a then relatively young artist. One moment, she’s unleashing angst-ridden wailing, the next moment she’s barely whispering to us. Florence and music partner Isabella Summers concocted a melody and words that are easy to ingest. At a Florence show you’ll belt every single word, and then the very next day you’ll find that they’re all still there inside your head.
“It's so easy to sing it to a crowd. But it's so hard, my love, to say it to you, all alone.”