Florence + the Machine surprisingly return with new material
It is just over half a year ago that Florence + the Machine made a glorious return with fourth album High As Hope. The band around leading lady Florence Welch toned their sound down slightly and delivered a beautifully understated record that was one of A Bit of Pop Music’s favourites of the year! Florence is currently on tour and recently premiered the brand new song ‘Moderation’ live. She now releases the track officially too, with another unreleased song titled ‘Haunted House’!

So how come she releases new music so soon after the album? Florence explained that both ‘Moderation’ and ‘Haunted House’ were created in the sessions for the High As Hope album, but both did not fit the overall sound. Therefore she decided to just release them now, as the ‘rules’ around album campaigns and release strategies are more loose in this day and age.

And what about the music? Well, Florence wasn’t wrong when she said that ‘Moderation’ did not fit the album, as it is more in line with the louder, more bombastic work of her Ceremonials album. The track takes a while to properly build as the strongest hooks present themselves only in the second part of the track. Florence’s vocals are as powerful as ever and you can already picture her belting her lungs out to this live, running from one end of the stage to the other. ‘Haunted House’ is a bit more of an interlude (or outro), lasting just under two minutes. It sure would not sound out of place in a dark piece of musical theater.

‘Moderation’ and ‘Haunted House’ probably won’t go down in history as two of the more memorable Florence + the Machine releases, but it is a nice treat to fans!