Sunday 15 June 2008

Florence and the Machine's New Single - 'Kiss With a Fist'

I totally love it now, but 'Kiss with a Fist' kinda surprised me in a not-wholly-positive way on the first listen. It's all hard'n'fast'n'not-acoustic, which, given her previous (brilliant) output (the Regina Spektor-ish dark folk of 'Girl with One Eye', for example), makes it a bit of departure. But after a few listens, and moreover after seeing the video, I realised that I'd kinda failed to realise just how much FUN it is. Which is kinda an achievement for a song that references but definitely isn't about domestic violence. Eek. And the b-side is a cover of Cold War Kids' 'Hospital Beds', which you can also hear on her myspace.



Awww, look at the lovely cellophane flames on the bed. It's just like arts'n'crafts at primary school, apart from the one very-un-Primary-School-ish moment towards the end of the video which I believe might be described in colloquial terms as an 'upskirt'.

Anyway, the actual track is right here, as is her cover of Beirut's 'Postcards from Italy', which is equally brilliant:

mp3: Florence and the Machine - Kiss with a Fist
(Single out now, though not very widely available :( )

mp3: Florence and the Machine - Postcards from Italy
(unreleased Beirut cover)

And just coz it's utterly brill, this is 'Girl with One Eye' live. I linked to it above, but then watched it and realised that it deserves all the publicity it can get, and is therefore worthy of a place on this blog, which, silverese being like totally influential and all, is obviously a hyuuuge favour... Ahem. Anyways, this is worth watching for the last half a minute alone, where her guitarist tries to get a bit of the mic, but you just can't hear his voice at all coz hers is so damn MASSIVE. Then the song finishes and she grins sheepishly and says thank you. Awww. Once again, considering the lyrical subject-matter, she's purty darn good at raising a smile. Oh, and the first three and a half minutes are awesome too. Woop. And remember, y'all, she's at Glastonbury, TWICE. :)





No comments: