Kate Bush may have beaten her to the heights, but if any diva was destined to roam the Yorkshire moors looking for Heathcliff, it had to be Florence Welch. Musically, it’s as if she’s stumbling across the rocks while being pelted by rain, fiery hair billowing around her while a primal wail escapes her golden throat into the gale. Welch is intimately aware of the powers of melodrama, soul-baring intensity, and passion, elements that have characterized her work since she first exhaled onto the scene last decade with Lungs. The brooding London artiste lays it on the line with starkly confessional lyrics and artful, bombastic arrangements. She dialed down the scale a bit on her year-old third album, How Big How Blue How Beautiful, which is still suitably grand to fill arenas with craggy mysticism and avant-pop smarts. What’s brand-new is a short film featuring Welch and much of the How Big material, audaciously titled The Odyssey. Art-pop star Grimes opens.

http://florenceandthemachine.net