Florence + The Machine are gearing up to debut at BBC Proms in September this year. What better way to celebrate than performing their debut album Lungs top to bottom backed by a full orchestra? Lungs turns 15 in July, as well, and Florence Welch has said she’s looking forward to revisiting the album. Specifically, she’s excited to figure out how to orchestrally arrange the tracks.
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Welch recently announced the news of their Proms debut in British Vogue. She shared that she wants to figure out the “swampy, south London, guitar-y” tracks especially. “‘Girl With One Eye’ and ‘My Boy Builds Coffins’ and ‘Kiss With A Fist’,” she said. “It’s actually the ones you’d think wouldn’t work orchestrally that I’m interested to figure out.”
Lungs dropped in July 2009. The album featured the singles “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” and “Cosmic Love.” “You’ve Got The Love” and the instant classic “Dog Days Are Over” were also included. In the heart of the Tumblr era, Florence + The Machine arrived like an avenging angel. The band burst onto the scene like every eclectic, witchy, religious-for-the-aesthetic girly’s dream. Florence Welch was at the helm wailing and screaming like Truth coming out of her well to shame mankind.
Florence + The Machine to Perform Debut Album Lungs in a Full Orchestral Reimagining
For “Florence + The Machine—Symphony of Lungs,” Welch revealed that she’s “currently on the hunt for old medieval English instruments,” which will be used in the show. Of the invitation, Welch said, “I’m so honoured,” adding, “The background to life in my house is classical music, and especially the more obscure things. So it’s a really exciting thing to be asked to do – the Proms is just so special.”
Florence Welch and her band will play at Royal Albert Hall on September 11. They will also be joined by Jules Buckley and his Orchestra. The venue website describes the Proms debut as a celebration of Lungs” of the compelling poetry and music of this singular artist in whom the darkly gothic meets all that glistens.”
15 years on from Lungs, Welch described revisiting the album as “a bit like reading an old diary” of a “messy, chaotic period of time.” She then continued, “I think it’s just that psychological thing of knowing when Florence and the Machine was starting to pick up the pace. To be able to go back and revisit it from a more established place… it’s sort of healing, in a way.”
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