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.
After Ceremonials, four years passed without another Florence album. So when How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful made its way into the world, there were enormous expectations. And in my mind, the album overdelivered. It was not only better than Ceremonials, it was wiser. More mature. It was still distinctly Florence, but there was an evolution of her sound and approach without any doubt. And “Ship to Wreck” showed that she was becoming increasingly open to singing about her personal demons.
It’s a perfect opening track in many ways. We had waited so long for this, so on “Ship to Wreck” Florence wasted no time and got right to it. It starts off at full speed, barreling through to an opening verse about how we sometimes end up destroying the things we love the most. The irony of it all is that this song about self-destructive behavior is very much a vessel that Florence used to build up her influence in the music world.
“My love remind me, what was it that I said? I can't help but pull the earth around me to make my bed. And, my love remind me, what was it that I did?”