Let’s hear it for S-T-R-O-N-G willed women with P-0-W-E-R-F-U-L voices.
For example, Annie Lennox singing “Walking on Broken Glass (1992) –her passion and conviction–she puts it all out there–and so does Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine in their newest, “Hunger.”
In both of those titles, it’s the singer’s energy that drives the melodies and builds their songs subtle intensity.
Sometimes called the “Queen of Indie Rock,” Welch is an emotive force of nature. The lyrics to “Hungry” were originally written as poetry, and are an explosion of passion and self-reflection; a semi-abstract musing about where to find love and how to recognize it.
I thought that love was in the drugs
But the more I took, the more it took away
I thought that love was on the stage
You give yourself to strangers
I thought that love was a kind of emptiness
and at least I understood then the hunger I felt
Welch gets great support from her multi-talented keyboard player, Isabella Summers.
“Hunger” is #1 this week on the Adult Alternative chart, and #11 on Alternative.