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Thursday, June 4, 2015

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

Florence + the Machine’s 
3rd LP is in need of quirk

ALBUM REVIEW

‘How Big, How Blue, 

How Beautiful:’ a 
break-up album

By MELINA GLUSAC

Daily Arts Writer

I first heard “Ship to Wreck” 

driving home from work on one of 
those out-of-the-blue sizzling May 
afternoons. (Mich-
igan weather, you 
keep any sense of 
normalcy in check. 
For that, I thank 
you, I hate you, I 
love you.) My caf-
feine buzz was long 
gone as I collapsed 
into the car around 
4 p.m., unleashing 
my pony tail and 
rolling the win-
dows down all the 
way so as to pump 
my stomach free of the day’s air-
conditioning overdose. Hey, we do 
what we have to.

To hear Florence at this point 

in time was nothing less than fit-
ting — a gift, actually, bestowed 
upon me by the almighty radio out 
of pity, necessity and graciousness. 
You see, Ms. Florence Welch doesn’t 
just come on the radio. She yawps, 
belches, even wails through your 
speakers with that great throaty 
voice that somehow reflects every 
bit of longing, heartbreak and 
ecstasy you’ve ever felt. Even at the 
lowest volume, “Ship to Wreck” is 
a characteristically epic, blossom-
ing tune. And it was perfect to hear 
it after a long day, cruising down 8 
Mile, wind in my hair. There was 
something very Perks-of-Being-a-
Wallflower-y about it all. 

So when How Big, How Blue, 

How Beautiful came out, I expected 
that aura of sad-happy infinity to 
percolate. A beautiful record, to be 
sure, Florence + the Machine’s third 
installment in its already impressive 
legacy is a bit pop-y, a lot devastat-
ing and often monotonous. We can’t 
forget how Florence burst onto the 
scene in 2009 with Lungs, a grace-
ful, harp-laced debut, and then fol-
lowed it up with 2011’s hauntingly 
essential Ceremonials But How^3 
ditches the one-word title pattern 

(and, unfortunately, much inven-
tive energy) and amps up the mel-
ancholy — sometimes in the band’s 
favor, sometimes not. 

This is, first and foremost, a 

break-up album. Every good one 
has a standout song. For Flo and 
the gang it’s “What Kind of Man,” 
an ethereal-meets-angry build-up 
melody that brings on the soul. It 
starts out easy until Welch stomps 
to the top of her royal soapbox 
(reserved for ginger goddesses only) 
to preach to her man about all his 
emotional wrongdoing. What kind 
of listener could resist this delicious 
British disdain?

Welch tries happiness on for size 

with “Delilah” and “Third Eye.” 
The latter is a refreshingly stripped 
number that has her handsomely 
chanting, “Hey look up! You don’t 
have to be a ghost here amongst the 
living!” (Thanks, Flo!) “Delilah” 
works just as well, with a catchy, 
interesting intro and one raw drum 
in the background. Joy suits Brits, 
too.

The album’s title track, though, 

sets the tone to snooze, and it’s hard 
for even the most seasoned artists 
to puncture that miasma of tired-
ness. “How Big, How Blue, How 
Beautiful” and “Queen of Peace” 
find Welch reveling in typical “Flor-
ence” territory — melodies that 
rest on her lovely voice, a comfort-
able, often-visited key and tiringly 
depressed lyrics. This is the band’s 
main issue. All of that is pretty, but 
after two and a half albums of it, 
it’s nothing special anymore. Bring 
back the harps or the weird lyrics 
about sacrifice (see: “Rabbit Heart 

(Raise It Up)”) or anything fresh, 
for that matter. How Big, How Blue, 
How Beautiful is in desperate need 
of quirk.

Nevertheless, the album’s acous-

tic ballads shine. “Various Storms 
& Saints” is a stunning journey to 
simplistic instrumental land; Welch 
weaves her softened-up way around 
a sole electric guitar played as deli-
cately as an acoustic one, and the 
result is ghostly, sexy and calm. 
“Long & Lost” elicits similar inti-
macy with eerily ascending backup 
whispers. And the sheer restraint 
of “St. Jude” adds to serious refine-
ment — Welch controls her cry here 
and shows she can still be mysteri-
ous while doing it. Clever girl.

“Caught,” perhaps the most pop 

of the bunch, is charmingly sad. It’s 
exactly the kind of song they play in 
a rom-com after Girl and Boy break 
up, during a montage of Girl doing 
various mundane activities with 
a little less “joie de vivre” because 
something just doesn’t feel right. 
Usually Girl or Boy then does some-
thing about that unsettled feeling, 
and the movie ends with a great kiss 
or reunion or splitting of a strand of 
spaghetti.

Does this album do that in the 

end? Does Florence make amends 
with her elusive male muse, with all 
things big and blue and (I’m assum-
ing, tragically) beautiful? Not quite. 
But one listen to the otherworldly, 
extro-spective symphony of hums, 
drums and fuzzy guitars on the 
closing “Mother” and you can’t help 
but feel infinite again. She got there. 
We got there. And at least the win-
dows were down along the way. 

B-

How Big, 
How Blue, 
How 
Beautiful 

Florence + 
the Machine 

Island Records

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

“Imma wreck that ship”

‘Aquarius’ isn’t 
binge-worthy TV

By MATT BARNAUSKAS

Daily Arts Writer

“Goddamn Hippies!” – Eric 

Cartman, “South Park”

Set in 1967’s Summer of Love, 

NBC’s “Aquar-
ius” 
finds 

itself 
filled 

with a bevy 
of the weed-
smoking 
counter 
cul-

turists, ready 
to say “man” 
a million times and be annoyingly 
uncooperative toward series pro-
tagonist, detective Sam Hodiak 
(David Duchovny, “The X-Files”).

Filled with neo-noir overtones, 

the show paints Hodiak as the typ-
ical grizzled veteran clashing with 
the younger generation, embodied 
by young undercover cop, Brian 
Shafe (Grey Damon, “Twisted”). 
True to type, Hodiak lives a lone-
ly life, with a soon-to-be ex-wife 
(Jodi Harris, “Grey’s Anatomy”) 
and a struggle to not slip back into 
alcoholism, which he undoubtedly 
succumbs to.

Hodiak’s life becomes a lot more 

interesting, though, when a former 
lover, Grace (Michaela McMa-
nus, “Awake”), asks him to help 
locate her daughter Emma (Emma 
Dumont, “Inherent Vice”), who 
has run away from home and taken 
up with what happens to be the 
eventual Manson Family, led by the 
Charlie Manson (Gethin Anthony, 
“Game of Thrones”) himself.

NBC has staked an inter-

est in the series, putting all epi-
sodes online, available to stream 
instantly. It’s a bold move by the 
network in an industry that has 
been upheaved by the presence of 
Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. 
However, “Aquarius” lacks the 
inherent binge-ability present in 
series such as “House of Cards” 
and “Orange is the New Black.” 

The biggest issue present in its 

early episodes is that “Aquarius” 
struggles to establish a forward 
momentum necessary to convince 
a viewer to plunge themselves 
down the rabbit hole and watch 
multiple episodes in one sitting. 
Hodiak’s storyline unfortunately 
gets bogged down in a case-of-
the-week structure that looks to 

serve as a Sparknotes guide to all 
the issues that were brewing dur-
ing the late 1960s. A notable exam-
ple is African-American activist, 
Bunchy (Gaius Charles, “Friday 
Night Lights”), who starts as a 
member of the Nation of Islam in 
the second episode and then con-
verts to the Black Panther Party 
by the fifth. Bunchy’s change is 
never fully seen during the initial 
episodes, just the result. Instead 
of feeling organic, his evolution is 
reduced to a plot point by the writ-
ers so they can continue crafting 
their ’60s historical primer.

The proto-Manson family also 

struggles. While Anthony pres-
ents Manson with solid contrast 
of menacing and delusional, his 
storyline about wanting to enter 
the music business and the life 
within his commune, while based 
on Manson’s life, doesn’t make for 
very exciting content. Manson is at 
his best when he’s trying to force 
people to bend to his will, prey-
ing on their fears and insecurities 
while presenting himself as either 
a savior or executioner. But the end 
goals, like getting a demo recorded, 
are incredibly low stakes.

Emma’s presence doesn’t aid 

the Manson storyline either. The 
character is just dull, serving as 
the conventionally misunderstood 
teen, whose parents are too busy 
arguing to pay attention to how 
hard she has it as an attractive 
upper-class white girl. The only 
entertainment the character gives 
is an unintentionally hilarious 
acid trip near the end of Episode 
4, filled with bad acting and worse 
effects.

Seeped in sepia tones, “Aquar-

ius” does present an intriguing 
setting for a noir-influenced show. 
The social conflicts are present; 
one case involving a cop and a 
Black teenager being choked to 
death eerily echoes with current 
events. Duchovny is more than 
serviceable as a troubled detec-
tive trying to do right within an 
increasingly apathetic precinct. 
However, the tendency of the 
show to fall back to familiar pro-
cedural formulas while never fully 
creating an engrossing overarch-
ing narrative prevents “Aquarius” 
from being the binge-worthy show 
it hopes to be. 

TV REVIEW

C-

Aquarius

Series Premiere

NBC

