How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is the third studio album by the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine, released on 29 May 2015 by Island Records. After her year-long break from music, the lead vocalist, Florence Welch, returned to configure the album, recording material that dealt with personal conflicts and struggles. In comparison to the band's two previous studio albums, it is much more refined and stripped-down instrumentally, and incorporates a mixture of musical influences such as folk, blues and gospel.
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
29 May 2015
February 2014 – 2015
48:46
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful was met with positive reviews from music critics, who commended the album for its cohesion, production and Welch's vocal delivery. It appeared on several year-end critics' lists. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number one with 68,788 copies sold in its first week, becoming the band's third consecutive number-one album. Four singles were released, "What Kind of Man", "Ship to Wreck", "Queen of Peace" and "Delilah". The album earned the band five Grammy Award nominations, in addition to being shortlisted for the 2015 Mercury Prize.
Background[edit]
In 2011, Florence and the Machine released their second studio album, Ceremonials, which was their second consecutive release to peak at number one on the UK Albums Chart, as well as the first to reach the top 10 of the US Billboard 200, peaking at number six.[3] The album included the song "Spectrum (Say My Name)", which was remixed by the Scottish musician Calvin Harris and became the group's first number-one single on the UK Singles Chart in July 2012.[4] In late August 2012, Welch told Style.com that she would take a year-long break from music, explaining, "There's a big 'take a year off' plan. The record company have put no pressure on me for the next album. They've said I can have as long as I want."[5] During her break, Welch made a guest appearance on Calvin Harris's album 18 Months, providing vocals on the track "Sweet Nothing", which topped the UK chart.[6]
Conception and recording[edit]
In an interview with Zane Lowe on 16 February 2015, Welch said that during the year off she had "a bit of a nervous breakdown", and that time was chaotic. The break was new for her, having almost constantly been at work during the making of the band's first two albums. She explained further, saying, "I was still going out and going to events but something wasn't quite right, I was spiraling a bit. I wasn't making myself happy. I wasn't stable."[7] It allowed her to reassess her musical approach to reflect her own life experiences, a change she credits to consulting with Taylor Swift.[8] Overall, the recording sessions for How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful were conducted during a vulnerable period in her life, making the album her most personal work thus far.[7]
Welch began composing the material for How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful after concluding the band's touring in support of Ceremonials in 2014.[9] Regarding the album's themes, she said in a press statement, "I guess although I've always dealt in fantasy and metaphor when I came to writing, that meant the songs this time were dealing much more in reality. Ceremonials was so fixated on death and water, and the idea of escape or transcendence through death, but the new album became about trying to learn how to live, and how to love in the world rather than trying to escape from it. Which is frightening because I'm not hiding behind anything but it felt like something I had to do."[10][11] Welch also told Lowe that the producer Markus Dravs was instrumental in exploring her lyrical versatility, as he forebade her to write any more songs about water, a main theme in her past compositions. Still, she managed to write "Ship to Wreck", a song which she jokingly commented was "not too explicit" in comparison to her past works.[7]
On 4 June 2014, Welch told NME that the band's third studio album was in the works.[12] There was an emphasised effort to avoid heavily orchestrating the instrumental arrangements, or as Welch described it, "make Ceremonials Part Two", as she believed the predecessor had reached its creative peak.[9] Welch said that she wanted to work with Dravs on the album, as he produced Björk's Homogenic (1997), an important album to Welch. "I felt he had that balance of organic and electronic capabilities, managing those two worlds. And, you know, he's good with big sounds. And I like big sounds. And he's good with trumpets, and I knew I wanted a brass section on this record", she said in the press release.[13] "With Markus, I wanted to make something that was big but that had a gentleness to it, that had a warmth, that was rooted. I think that's why we went back more to the live instruments. Something that was band-led almost", she added.[14] The final track on the album, "Mother", was co-produced by Dravs and Paul Epworth.[13][14]
Commercial performance[edit]
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 68,788 copies, earning the band their third consecutive number-one album.[81] The album slipped to number two for two weeks in a row,[82][83] before reclaiming the number-one spot in its fourth week on the chart, with 14,419 copies sold.[84] In the United States, the album debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 137,000 album-equivalent units, of which 128,000 were pure album sales. It marked the band's first number-one album on the chart, as well as their largest sales week.[85] As of December 2015, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful had sold 290,000 copies in the US.[86] The album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 19,000 copies in its first week.[87] In Australia, the album debuted at the top of the charts, with sales of 15,706 copies.[88]
Elsewhere, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful topped the charts in Ireland, New Zealand, Poland and Switzerland, while reaching the top five in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain, and the top 10 in Finland, Greece, Italy and Sweden.[89][90][91][92] As of February 2016, the album had sold one million copies worldwide.[93]