High As Hope

Florence + the Machine’s fourth studio album, released on June 29th 2018.

The album cover and official tracklist were announced along with the release of the album’s lead single, “Hunger.”

Speaking about the album, Florence describes that she aimed for a more positive message for love and life, in contrast to her heartbreak last record How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.

When I came back to New York to mix the record, I would see the skyline going over the bridge and it inspired me to write this poem ‘New York Poem (For Polly)’ which included the line “ever reaching, high as hope”. I decided to call the album that – I was going to call it The End of Love but I thought maybe that had too negative a thing, and then when I wrote this poem I thought “maybe that’s it”. There are a lot of feelings on this record – sadness, anger, joy – but in amongst it, I still have hope".

The theme of this album is one in contrast to her previous records: in her past work, Florence describes using her music to fill the voids and fix the damages in her life. Conversely, as described by the Sunday Times, Florence “has realised the answers won’t be found in her career and are located in a chain of events, a pattern of behaviour that long predates it”.

Florence described the processes of recording it as “Lungs, but with 10 years more experience”. She describes how it was written from the “core” of her, and that unlike her previous two albums, this one was written for the pure joy of music.

This is the first of Florence Welch’s albums for which she is a named co-producer, and also the first album of hers that includes explicit songs.

some of her collaborators on the project include Kamasi Washington, Jamie xx, Sampha, Tobias Jesso Jr., and Kelsey Lu.