Florence + The Machine

Lungs arrived in 2009 with Dog Days Are Over, Rabbit Heart and other songs that introduced an unusually expansive pop identity. The rhythms can feel physical and insistent, while the melody keeps rising beyond an expected stopping point. The arrangements have plenty of colour, but the voice provides a clear route through them. A quieter line can make the next large entrance feel like a release rather than simply another increase in volume.

The band’s cover of You’ve Got the Love offered another point of entry, placing an already familiar song within that particular combination of vocal force and dramatic build. The debut works best as a whole because the moods vary: unease, exhilaration and a more fragile intimacy all belong in the same musical world.

Ceremonials followed in 2011, developing a broader and more concentrated sound through songs including Shake It Out and What the Water Gave Me. The scale becomes larger, yet the emotional movement remains important. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful in 2015 gives other instrumental textures and a more exposed perspective room to emerge. Later albums continue to change that balance rather than treating the debut’s most recognisable gestures as fixed instructions. The catalogue rewards listening to how the voice meets the arrangement: sometimes carried by it, sometimes straining against it and sometimes left almost alone. That changing relationship gives the dramatic choruses their weight and keeps the music from becoming a permanent state of climax.