Florence + The Machine continues to share music from their upcoming studio album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. The fourth single, "Ship to Wreck," is a surprising tune -- its light, pop melody tries to disguise darker lyrics dealing with an internal battle. Singer Florence Welch sounds angelic on the track, which follows "St. Jude," "What Kind of a Man" and the titular effort.
Things are dark right from the opening verse.
"Don't touch the sleeping pills, they mess with my head / Dredging of big white sharks, swimming in the bed / And here comes a killer whale, sing me to sleep / Thrashing the covers off, has me by its teeth," Welch sings.
There is no resolution by the end of the tune, which is centered around a fleeting relationship, and maybe that is the point. There is a strange element of comfort in the idea of building a "ship to wreck" in that it is a deliberate destruction. Next time, just try harder not to wreck whatever it is you have spent so much time building.
Take a listen below, via Rolling Stone.
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is due out June 2. The album follows Welch and Co.'s 2011 effort Ceremonials. That record hit No. 6 on the Billboard 200 behind singles like "What the Water Gave Me" and "Shake It Out." It was a critical success as well.
"Florence and the Machine's second album is as dark, robust and romantic as ever, but a revving 18-wheeler is no longer the apt metaphor for Welch's voice. Listen to her hooting and growling on 'Only If for a Night,' a ballad somewhere between classic soul and midnight-on-the-moors English art rock," RS wrote.
Florence + The Machine will be busy touring for the next few months, making stops at festivals in the United States and United Kingdom. The group will hit the Big 3 stateside -- Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza -- as well as Germany's Southside, Denmark's Roskilde and Portugual's Super Bock Super Rock.
