Florence + the Machine have unveiled a dark music video this past Friday, for "No Light No Light," the second single from English indie rock band's new sophomore effort "Ceremonials." The frontwoman Florence Welch and her band have landed themselves in hot water after allegations their latest video promotes racial stereotypes and demonizes a religion, The music criticism from around the blogosphere debate over suggestions that it has a racist subtext."No Light, No Light" was the first song penned by Welch and Isabella Summers for the album during the tour in Amsterdam. The song begins with lyrics talking about fighting with snakes, and it was one of the songs where Welch sets aside her usual flighty, dreamy, gothy lyrical go-to's ghosts, graveyards, devils, angels, myths, drowning for something a bit more personal. Musically, the song exudes utter strength; lyrically, Welch is on her knees.
Backed by a live choir, Welch showed off her vocal prowess as she rocked out to "No Light, No Light" and she told NME: "Most of my influences have been male singers and the people I grew up watching perform were all these garage punk bands who went to Camberwell Art College with male singers who were almost trying to exorcise the audience. So when I write songs like 'No Light, No Light', I'm thinking about the rhythm and the chant and the aggression rather than the melodic mellifluousness of it."
The video, directed by Iceland-based duo Arni & Kinski, seems suggested a flirtation with dark magic, but any fascination Welch has with the occult is no longer the stuff of Manor Party games. There's some seriously life-threatening juju going on and as we watch Welch belt out the song from a skyscraper's rooftop, while elsewhere - perhaps far out of the range of her cannon-blast voice - a man painted black is convulsing through the steps of a voodoo ritual. The clip touches on the fine line between spiritual ecstasy and reckless abandon, is exploring a territory between Christianity and voodoo spirituality. It does not shy away from matching the music's melodramatic intensity.
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