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Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Poetry (2018)Lyrics and never-before-seen poetry and sketches from Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine.
"Songs can be incredibly prophetic, like subconscious warnings or messages to myself, but I often don't know what I'm trying to say till years later. Or a prediction comes true and I couldn't do anything to stop it, so it seems like a kind of useless magic."
"Songs can be incredibly prophetic, like subconscious warnings or messages to myself, but I often don't know what I'm trying to say till years later. Or a prediction comes true and I couldn't do anything to stop it, so it seems like a kind of useless magic."
288 pages, Hardcover
First published July 5, 2018
405 people are currently reading
25212 people want to read
About the author
Florence Welch
27 books1,030 followersFlorence Leontine Mary Welch (born 28 August 1986) is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the vocalist of indie rock band Florence and the Machine.
Florence and the Machine's debut album, Lungs, was released in 2009; on 17 January 2010, the album reached the top position in the UK after being on the chart for 28 consecutive weeks. Lungs won the Brit Award for Best British Album in 2010. The group's second studio album, Ceremonials, released in October 2011, debuted at number one in the UK and number six in the US. The band's third album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful was released in 2015 to positive reviews from critics, and topped the UK and US charts.
Florence and the Machine's debut album, Lungs, was released in 2009; on 17 January 2010, the album reached the top position in the UK after being on the chart for 28 consecutive weeks. Lungs won the Brit Award for Best British Album in 2010. The group's second studio album, Ceremonials, released in October 2011, debuted at number one in the UK and number six in the US. The band's third album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful was released in 2015 to positive reviews from critics, and topped the UK and US charts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,290 reviews
November 10, 2018
”I guess I won't write poetry
I'll just stare at my phone for fucking eternity”
a mood
I'll just stare at my phone for fucking eternity”
a mood
December 6, 2018
Florence Welch has been such an important person in my life for years now. Her music is one of a kind, her words full of meaning that can left you feeling so full or so empty. Everything is full force or simmering within your veins. I love it all.
October 7, 2024
➽ And the moral of this reread is: Saint Florence please pray for us puny mortals.
(Florence Welch prayer candle available for sale here. A joke this ain't not.)
[April 2019]
I want to be Florence Welch when I grow up.
· Big God · Drumming Song · How Big How Blue How Beautiful · You’ve Got the Dirtee Love · Dog Days Are Over · Cosmic Love · Delilah · Rabbit Heart · Patricia · Never Let Me Go · St Jude · Shake It Out · Howl · Hunger · Queen of Peace ·
(Florence Welch prayer candle available for sale here. A joke this ain't not.)
[April 2019]
I want to be Florence Welch when I grow up.
“I make songs to tie people to me,
With a ribbon of fantasy around their necks
Such a beautiful bow
That I hold in my fist.
And will not let go.”
· Big God · Drumming Song · How Big How Blue How Beautiful · You’ve Got the Dirtee Love · Dog Days Are Over · Cosmic Love · Delilah · Rabbit Heart · Patricia · Never Let Me Go · St Jude · Shake It Out · Howl · Hunger · Queen of Peace ·
August 7, 2018
florence welch is my wiccan gf
![Profile Image for s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1735525095i%2F6431467._UX200_CR0%2C11%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
April 22, 2023
This is my bible
(In all seriousness: this book is endlessly inspiring, incredibly beautiful and makes me want to create)
(In all seriousness: this book is endlessly inspiring, incredibly beautiful and makes me want to create)
August 4, 2020
This was okay for me. I enjoyed seeing the visuals that accompanied the songs (poems) but other than that it did not blow me away at all.
It just seemed a bit like a scrapbook - it was cute but 90% of it wasn’t original material for the book. For some reason I thought it would be.
I love Florence and the Machine and I’m glad I read this. It’s lovely to look through.
It just seemed a bit like a scrapbook - it was cute but 90% of it wasn’t original material for the book. For some reason I thought it would be.
I love Florence and the Machine and I’m glad I read this. It’s lovely to look through.
July 1, 2018
((God knows how I managed to acquire a copy of this a week before its publication fate – bought it at the same time as I bought the latest album, High as Hope. Foyles on Charing Cross Road had a few rogue copies out so I bought one before they realised what they’d done.))
Useless Magic is the first collection of writings (verses?) from Florence Welch, most notable for being the frontwoman of Florence + The Machine. She’s often acclaimed for her vocals, and the band is often praised for the brilliant noise that it makes, but her lyrics are rarely commented on. Seeing them here, stripped of their music, stark on the page illuminates firstly, just how brilliantly Welch captures sadness, and secondly, just how dense they actually are.
Packed with literary allusion and mythic inspiration, each lyric seems to be in conversation with something else, be that another text, or something larger. Organised here by album, you can chart how the almost triumphantly drunk Lungs give way to the darker, more difficult, water-soaked Ceremonials, through to How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, which certainly seems to be Welch at her happiest, to the latest lyrics of High as Hope, which are subtler, more subdued.
The book itself is shot through with imagery; lyrics are separated by and punctuated with photographs, paintings, postcards, scraps of Welch’s handwriting (one of the most pleasing things about this book is learning that just like me, Welch seems to write on anything and everything she can get her hands on.) Some of the images are recognisable, like The Lady of Shallot, others are not, more obscure references to pop-art, and many are Welch’s own. The images, like the lyrics, shift as the book progresses. It feels completely seamless, after all, Welch herself looks as though she’s toppled out of the frame of a Raphaelite painting.
The most interesting part of the book is the part that hitherto has been inaccessible to her fans, that is, her poems. She writes in her brief preface that she is unsure what marks a poem as different to a song, but from a reader’s perspective, it seems that her songs weave her life into a tighter patchwork of allusion and repetition, focusing on moments, whereas her poetry feels more overtly confessional, or autobiographical. In shorter, clipped verse (apparently Nick Cave helped her edit) she covers more ground, sketching out swathes of her life in no times at all.
And as you read, you start to notice recurring ideas, words. Some are more obvious than others – Ceremonials is famously full of songs about water – and others accumulate, ideas of ghosts and gods, demons and drink, years and arms. It feels larger than words, which is I suppose what makes them brilliant lyrics. They feel mythic, magic maybe – useless or otherwise.
Useless Magic is the first collection of writings (verses?) from Florence Welch, most notable for being the frontwoman of Florence + The Machine. She’s often acclaimed for her vocals, and the band is often praised for the brilliant noise that it makes, but her lyrics are rarely commented on. Seeing them here, stripped of their music, stark on the page illuminates firstly, just how brilliantly Welch captures sadness, and secondly, just how dense they actually are.
Packed with literary allusion and mythic inspiration, each lyric seems to be in conversation with something else, be that another text, or something larger. Organised here by album, you can chart how the almost triumphantly drunk Lungs give way to the darker, more difficult, water-soaked Ceremonials, through to How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, which certainly seems to be Welch at her happiest, to the latest lyrics of High as Hope, which are subtler, more subdued.
The book itself is shot through with imagery; lyrics are separated by and punctuated with photographs, paintings, postcards, scraps of Welch’s handwriting (one of the most pleasing things about this book is learning that just like me, Welch seems to write on anything and everything she can get her hands on.) Some of the images are recognisable, like The Lady of Shallot, others are not, more obscure references to pop-art, and many are Welch’s own. The images, like the lyrics, shift as the book progresses. It feels completely seamless, after all, Welch herself looks as though she’s toppled out of the frame of a Raphaelite painting.
The most interesting part of the book is the part that hitherto has been inaccessible to her fans, that is, her poems. She writes in her brief preface that she is unsure what marks a poem as different to a song, but from a reader’s perspective, it seems that her songs weave her life into a tighter patchwork of allusion and repetition, focusing on moments, whereas her poetry feels more overtly confessional, or autobiographical. In shorter, clipped verse (apparently Nick Cave helped her edit) she covers more ground, sketching out swathes of her life in no times at all.
And as you read, you start to notice recurring ideas, words. Some are more obvious than others – Ceremonials is famously full of songs about water – and others accumulate, ideas of ghosts and gods, demons and drink, years and arms. It feels larger than words, which is I suppose what makes them brilliant lyrics. They feel mythic, magic maybe – useless or otherwise.
Read
February 6, 2023I LOVE YOU FLORENCE YOU BEAUTIFUL FOREST NYMPH
December 10, 2018
actual rating: 2.5
I really like Florence + the Machine but I just don't understand the 'point' of this book. Most of it is literally just reprinting the lyrics of every song off every one of her albums. I mean ...yes she has great lyrics but that is why I LISTEN to the MUSIC, or if I need to look a lyric up there are about 50 websites dedicated to just that. There are a handful of original poems at the end, but the majority of the text here is stuff we've already seen [or heard]. There's some cool drawings, pictures, and artwork [both original and reprints of classic pieces] but overall it's just not enough to sell this book for me.
I really like Florence + the Machine but I just don't understand the 'point' of this book. Most of it is literally just reprinting the lyrics of every song off every one of her albums. I mean ...yes she has great lyrics but that is why I LISTEN to the MUSIC, or if I need to look a lyric up there are about 50 websites dedicated to just that. There are a handful of original poems at the end, but the majority of the text here is stuff we've already seen [or heard]. There's some cool drawings, pictures, and artwork [both original and reprints of classic pieces] but overall it's just not enough to sell this book for me.
July 22, 2018
"I guess I won't write poetry I'll just stare at my phone for fucking eternity"
January 30, 2019
“I don’t know what makes a song a song and a poem a poem: they have started to bleed into each other at this stage.”
It surprised me how, reading them stripped of their catchy melodies, the lyrics that stood out to me weren’t necessarily those of the songs I like to listen to on repeat. I loved this scrapbook-type collection of notes, paintings, polaroids, postcards, maps, which chronicles her creative journey and shows how she seems to find inspiration in everything that surrounds her.
It surprised me how, reading them stripped of their catchy melodies, the lyrics that stood out to me weren’t necessarily those of the songs I like to listen to on repeat. I loved this scrapbook-type collection of notes, paintings, polaroids, postcards, maps, which chronicles her creative journey and shows how she seems to find inspiration in everything that surrounds her.
Want to read
November 30, 2017I'M SO EXCITED THIS IS A THING!!!!!!!
Want to read
June 22, 2023"biz de anca böyle kendi kendimizi tatmin ederiz." güncel 22.06.23: 15,00£ * 31 = 465₺
burası kümülatif bir şey oldu, en günceli üste alıyorum. Rabbim bana tersini yazmayı nasip etsin inşallah.
(siyaset yapanın topuğuna sıkarım, bu başarı siz aziz milletimin büyük katkılarıyla da oldu.)
"bir sözde atatürkçü, bir ırkçı, bir bağnaz, bir hırsız, bir terörist, bi' masaya oturmuş, üstelik bu masadan iki tane varmış" ile gelen güncel: 30.05.23: 15,00£ * 25,05 = 375,75₺
"Fiyatları tayin eden Allah'tır" ile gelen güncel: 28.07.22: 15,00£ * 21,76 = 326,40₺
KONUŞTUKÇA BATIYORUZ ile gelen güncel: 20.11.21: 15,00£ * 18,74 = 281,10₺
piklerin amına koyyoruz amerikaya bişi olmasın ile gelen güncel: 05.01.20: 15,00£ * 11,05 = 165,75₺
penguin klasik basımı ile gelen güncel: 18.09.20: 20,00£ * 9.81 = 196,13₺
sonuçta dolarla maaş almıyoruz pikiyle gelen güncel: 12.08.20: 15,00£ * 9,48 = 142,2₺
eski güncel: 17.05.20: 15,00£ * 7,47 = 112,05₺
Hardcover, Gucci Special Edition Published December 2018 by Penguin diyo
penguin ve gucci ve hardover diyo ölmek istiyorum.
gucci edition: 23.05.18: 64,00 $ * 7,55 = 483,20 ₺
an itibariyle: 02.08.18: 15,00 £ * 6,65 = 99,75 ₺
* aksi belirtilmedikçe fiyat sabittir.
- kur değerleri xe'den alınmıştır.
July 5, 2018
Considering how much I love Florence, how could I have loved this any less? It's like her soul.
Read
June 29, 2020Okay. Woah. Um...
I listened to 4 albums back to back. It somehow felt like a whole new experience because I went through the lyrics along with it this time.
I think there are some days when you let the melody take control over you and the other days when you let the lyrics sink in. I felt both today.
And Now I am all charged up!!
I listened to 4 albums back to back. It somehow felt like a whole new experience because I went through the lyrics along with it this time.
I think there are some days when you let the melody take control over you and the other days when you let the lyrics sink in. I felt both today.
And Now I am all charged up!!
February 16, 2021
So I had this on my TBR for so long and I finally read it. I always recommend this type of books during exam weeks because it relaxes me and I don’t have to be too much into it, I don’t know how to explain in but it’s not the same connection I need for a whole novel. So anyway, this was interesting and I absolutely loved the art and the pictures, but I guess I don’t know how much I liked the lyrics? But overral it was an interesting read and the perfect one to read when you’re a little bit stressed :)
Want to read
December 1, 2017Can I give this book 5 stars already?
January 29, 2022
Ten tomik mistycznej poezji sprawił, że poczułam się zrozumiana. Czułam się, jakbym czytała swój własny pamiętnik po latach. Pamiętnik słów nadzwyczajnych, baśniowych, magicznych i niemal fruwających z poezji.
Znalazłam w tym zbiorze wszystko, czego szukałam: teksty piosenek Florence, jej wiersze, zdjęcia, rysunki, notatki i bajecznie melancholijne poruszenie.
Znalazłam w tym zbiorze wszystko, czego szukałam: teksty piosenek Florence, jej wiersze, zdjęcia, rysunki, notatki i bajecznie melancholijne poruszenie.
July 22, 2018
"Maybe I've always been more comfortable in chaos."
Esse livro reúne as letras dos quatro álbuns de estúdio da banda Florence + the Machine (Lungs; Ceremonials; How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful; High as Hope) mais poemas inéditos da vocalista, Florence Welch. Essa leitura foi uma experiência única, mesmo eu sendo fã da banda há quase dois anos. Eu sou o tipo de pessoa que demora muito para pesquisar as letras das músicas, porque acho uma tarefa longa e cansativa, geralmente leio pelo encarte. Os álbuns da F+TM não têm as letras no encarte, exceto o último, então algumas letras li pela primeira vez aqui.
"I'm done with my graceless heart."
As letras da Florence são cheias de misticismo, camadas e referências à história, à mitologia e a outros artistas. O Lungs é o álbum mais complexo da banda nesse sentido, ao meu ver, porque tudo é cantado através de metáforas. O Ceremonials continua na mesma pegada, mas com letras mais fácies de entender. Este último foi um álbum que bombou nas trilhas sonoras de séries e filmes por aí.
"So I reasoned I was drunk enough to deal with it."
O How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful é um álbum pesado, sobre relações abusivas e consumo excessivo de drogas líticas e ilícitas. Foi um período muito conturbado para a cantora, o que nos é reafirmado no seu trabalho seguinte, mais leve e intímo: High as Hope.
"At least I understood then the hunger I felt / and I didn't have to call it loneliness."
O High as Hope é um álbum lindo, que muda muito a imagem da Florence. Algumas das minhas músicas favoritas estão neles e eu ainda estou VIVENDO o meu amor pelo álbum.
"... in those heavy days in june, when love became an act of defiance / Hold on to each other."
Em resumo, indico esse livro para fãs da Florence e para quem mais quiser conhecer o trabalho dela. Se você gosta de livros de poesia, talvez esse seja uma boa pedida também. As letras são magníficas. You remind me that it's such a wonderful thing to love, Florence. <3
Esse livro reúne as letras dos quatro álbuns de estúdio da banda Florence + the Machine (Lungs; Ceremonials; How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful; High as Hope) mais poemas inéditos da vocalista, Florence Welch. Essa leitura foi uma experiência única, mesmo eu sendo fã da banda há quase dois anos. Eu sou o tipo de pessoa que demora muito para pesquisar as letras das músicas, porque acho uma tarefa longa e cansativa, geralmente leio pelo encarte. Os álbuns da F+TM não têm as letras no encarte, exceto o último, então algumas letras li pela primeira vez aqui.
"I'm done with my graceless heart."
As letras da Florence são cheias de misticismo, camadas e referências à história, à mitologia e a outros artistas. O Lungs é o álbum mais complexo da banda nesse sentido, ao meu ver, porque tudo é cantado através de metáforas. O Ceremonials continua na mesma pegada, mas com letras mais fácies de entender. Este último foi um álbum que bombou nas trilhas sonoras de séries e filmes por aí.
"So I reasoned I was drunk enough to deal with it."
O How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful é um álbum pesado, sobre relações abusivas e consumo excessivo de drogas líticas e ilícitas. Foi um período muito conturbado para a cantora, o que nos é reafirmado no seu trabalho seguinte, mais leve e intímo: High as Hope.
"At least I understood then the hunger I felt / and I didn't have to call it loneliness."
O High as Hope é um álbum lindo, que muda muito a imagem da Florence. Algumas das minhas músicas favoritas estão neles e eu ainda estou VIVENDO o meu amor pelo álbum.
"... in those heavy days in june, when love became an act of defiance / Hold on to each other."
Em resumo, indico esse livro para fãs da Florence e para quem mais quiser conhecer o trabalho dela. Se você gosta de livros de poesia, talvez esse seja uma boa pedida também. As letras são magníficas. You remind me that it's such a wonderful thing to love, Florence. <3
August 1, 2018
"To give yourself over to another body
That’s all you want really
To be out of your own and consumed by another
To swim inside the skin of your lover
Not have to breathe
Not have to think
But you can’t live on love
And salt water’s no drink
We're dying of thirst so we feast on each other
The sea is still our violent mother
The blood round here pours down like water
Each wave a lamb lead to the slaughter
And like children that she just can’t teach
We break, and break, and break
And break ourselves upon the beach"
To me, one of the most powerful poems Welch has ever written.
That’s all you want really
To be out of your own and consumed by another
To swim inside the skin of your lover
Not have to breathe
Not have to think
But you can’t live on love
And salt water’s no drink
We're dying of thirst so we feast on each other
The sea is still our violent mother
The blood round here pours down like water
Each wave a lamb lead to the slaughter
And like children that she just can’t teach
We break, and break, and break
And break ourselves upon the beach"
To me, one of the most powerful poems Welch has ever written.
Read
January 3, 2019I'm not a Florence and the Machine fan, but I did enjoy going through this book. However, for my taste, there were far too many song lyrics and far too few poems. On the bright side, the arrangement of pictures and notes give Useless Magic a cute, charming quality, which I suppose would be even more appreciated by a devoted fan of their music.
January 7, 2021
"Say my name
And every colour illuminates
We are shining
And we will never be afraid again"
THIS! This is how I want my poetry to be. This is how I'd want my Instagram to be. Flornce Welch's entire being is just so dreamy and magical and of course the music is too good to not listen to. I'm listening to Shake It Out as I write this.
And every colour illuminates
We are shining
And we will never be afraid again"
THIS! This is how I want my poetry to be. This is how I'd want my Instagram to be. Flornce Welch's entire being is just so dreamy and magical and of course the music is too good to not listen to. I'm listening to Shake It Out as I write this.
March 18, 2022
კონცერტებზე რომ ყვირიან, ur music saved me, ეგრე ვარ ფლორენსის მიმართ. ძალიან ძვირფასი ქალია. პაწაწინა ალქაჯი. ასე რომ, "Useless" კი არა, ძალიანაც Useful არის ეს ყველაფერი თავისი ლამაზი ილუსტრაციებიანად.
პ.ს: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCM8Q...
პ.ს: ახლა რომ ახალ ალბომს დადებს, "Dance Fever", ეგ არის ჩემი დაბადების დღის საჩუქარი და ამაზე ნუ შემეკამათებით!
პ.ს: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCM8Q...
პ.ს: ახლა რომ ახალ ალბომს დადებს, "Dance Fever", ეგ არის ჩემი დაბადების დღის საჩუქარი და ამაზე ნუ შემეკამათებით!
January 13, 2021
3.5 (it’s hard rating it) This is essentially a collection of lyrics, Florence’s thoughts, artwork and poems. It was nice reading the lyrics without the music because you could focus on them more but I just wish there was more extra content. This is the second music kinda book I read and it was good but was just expecting a bit more.
My favourite lyrics/quotes:
“Leave all your love and your longing behind
You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive”
“Midas is king and he holds me so tight
Turns me to gold in the sunlight”
“And the arms of the ocean are carrying me
And all this devotion was rushing out of me
The crush is a heaven, for a sinner like me
But the arms of the ocean deliver me”
“raise your love
hold it high
let it shine for miles and miles”
“One grand moment is all I ask”
“We raise our voices and let our hearts take flight
Get higher than those planes can fly
where the stars do not take sides”
“from you the flowers grow
and do you understand with every seed you sow
you make this cold world
beautiful”
“And it’s hard to write about being happy because the older I get
I find that happiness, is an extremely uneventful subject”
“I like people who’ve seen some darkness
The haunted ones.
I like people who don’t claim to know what love is
The honest ones.”
My favourite lyrics/quotes:
“Leave all your love and your longing behind
You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive”
“Midas is king and he holds me so tight
Turns me to gold in the sunlight”
“And the arms of the ocean are carrying me
And all this devotion was rushing out of me
The crush is a heaven, for a sinner like me
But the arms of the ocean deliver me”
“raise your love
hold it high
let it shine for miles and miles”
“One grand moment is all I ask”
“We raise our voices and let our hearts take flight
Get higher than those planes can fly
where the stars do not take sides”
“from you the flowers grow
and do you understand with every seed you sow
you make this cold world
beautiful”
“And it’s hard to write about being happy because the older I get
I find that happiness, is an extremely uneventful subject”
“I like people who’ve seen some darkness
The haunted ones.
I like people who don’t claim to know what love is
The honest ones.”
Read
March 19, 2021i love this book with all my existence
July 14, 2018
Useless Magic is a music fan's dream! I'm pretty sure someone unfamiliar with Florence Welch (or her band, Florence + the Machine) would find this book worthwhile, although anyone would have to admit that the book is oh so pretty. The rich maroon cloth binding to the stunning photography on heavy paper—it's essentially an Instagram feed in book form.
If you are new to Florence, go listen to her records and fall in love with her! But for longstanding fans, this is such a special glimpse into the creative mind of the artist. It includes nearly all her lyrics, a handful of poems, and a ton of sketches and jottings ripped from journals and stray pads of paper. Her lyrics really hold up to being read without the music to accompany them, and the poems definitely felt like a glimpse into her writing process.
It's such a beautiful package that I'm left wishing I could have a book of this quality for all of my favourite singers. (Hint, hint, Tori Amos. Please do something like this.)
If you are new to Florence, go listen to her records and fall in love with her! But for longstanding fans, this is such a special glimpse into the creative mind of the artist. It includes nearly all her lyrics, a handful of poems, and a ton of sketches and jottings ripped from journals and stray pads of paper. Her lyrics really hold up to being read without the music to accompany them, and the poems definitely felt like a glimpse into her writing process.
It's such a beautiful package that I'm left wishing I could have a book of this quality for all of my favourite singers. (Hint, hint, Tori Amos. Please do something like this.)
August 30, 2022
We got
ready to
go out,
the excitement
a firework in my
mouth
I'll separate the art from the artist and the lyrics from the music for a moment and say that the song lyrics were more poetic than the poems, while the lyrics could've worked a little bit better if they were rewritten without some of the repetitions.
But this is hardly any criticism. However they're being delivered, Florence's thoughts, ideas, and messages are just as artistic and ravishing.
ready to
go out,
the excitement
a firework in my
mouth
I'll separate the art from the artist and the lyrics from the music for a moment and say that the song lyrics were more poetic than the poems, while the lyrics could've worked a little bit better if they were rewritten without some of the repetitions.
But this is hardly any criticism. However they're being delivered, Florence's thoughts, ideas, and messages are just as artistic and ravishing.
May 11, 2021
⚠️🚨WARNING: GREAT TANGENTS ABOUND🚨⚠️
Rating: 5 stars
Ah! Review! Need to actually write something about this book! It was... (hang on a sec, just going to consult my virtual word dinosaur): good. Really good. So good, it is worth five stars. (Bet you couldn't guess that.) Yeah! Now I can insert this at the beginning to make people think I actually wrote sensical stuff!
Florence + the Machine have been my favourite band for a while now. I even have one of their vinyl records (yes, I am hip and cool and have a turn table *finger guns*). I guess that couldn't be helped, (I sense a tangent in the Force...) as growing up pretending everything from soap holders to rubber ducks was The Yellow Submarine in the bath (thank you Dad) and telling my peers that The Beatles were better than One Direction (did not get much support for that one) could only lead me in one direction (haha. Sorry, bad pun). (I can already tell this is going to be more like rambly word vomit about my taste in music than a review. Sigh.)
I have always loved more rock-type music, which isn't as common now, so I ended up finding my favourite songs were all from sometime between late 60s to early 90s. Also, at this time my family had shoddy internet, and we only used it for school work and that was pretty much it (Netflix hadn't come to my country yet). So my primary source of music consumption was through my parent's rather large CD collection. That, along with sneaking into my nana's computer room whenever I was at her house so I could watch the newest "cool" song's music video only once and then tell my friends the next day "oh yeah, I know that song" and be swag and skux (whatever those words meant).
Anyway, I stumbled upon David Bowie (around the beginning of high school maybe...?) with Life On Mars? and oh my giddy aunt I loved that song so incredibly much. Hey, who am I kidding, that song has been my top song every year since then - I still love it to death. To put it in perspective, I have a playlist called Life On Mars? Playlist and it contains one song (give you one guess as to which song) and I put it on "shuffle" and listen to it for hours, days on end. No joke. All of a sudden I didn't care what the new songs were. I didn't even try to keep up with anything. My love for Life On Mars? inevitably expanded to all of Bowie's stuff (fun fact: when I first found Bowie I didn't have much internet access, like I mentioned before, so I always pronounced his name BOW-ie, as in take a bow, and it wasn't until many years later when I realised it was BOW-ie, like tie a bow) and now I have all the Bowie things. Like, if someone asks what I like, I rattle off a few books (obviously); Doctor Who, Star Trek and Star Wars I lump into one; and then I say David Bowie.
But this is not about Bowie, is it. It's about Florence + the Machine. (That was a huuuuuuuge tangent. I really need to put a warning up about that, yikes.) I guess they come in sometime around that time, maybe before or after. I just know the first song I heard of theirs was What Kind of Man, a single before their third studio album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. Or, well, that was the first song I heard and actively knew was theirs. The whole album came out not long after and aaaaaaahhhhhh it was so good. I then realised that Ceremonials, their previous album, I had also listened to and loved, I just didn't know it (remember, I was still an internet-less caveman at the time). Now, HB,HB,HB is still my favourite album of The Machine's, and one of my favourites of all time (tempting, but I'm not going to list off all my top albums, this has gone on long enough as it is) with Various Storms and Saints being a particularly special song for me personally.
Again though, this is not about the band, it's about this book: Useless Magic. (Well, I guess because all of the lyrics were written down I can kind of justify rambling like this.) But I have gone on for what feels like 100000 pages now, and I have no space left to comment on the actual book (sigh, again). I guess I can say with confidence that Florence Welsh is a poet and she bloody well knows it. Metaphors are completely lost on me, and so poetry is really hard, but even I can see the talent here.
But that needs to be the end now. Not much time for actual reviewy stuff. Well, it would have just been trillions of quotes from this masterpiece of a book. Everyone has probably done that already though, so go read their reviews if you want something sensical. And if you're looking for nonsense blah blah blah about things nobody cares about, well, I'm always here.
Rating: 5 stars
Ah! Review! Need to actually write something about this book! It was... (hang on a sec, just going to consult my virtual word dinosaur): good. Really good. So good, it is worth five stars. (Bet you couldn't guess that.) Yeah! Now I can insert this at the beginning to make people think I actually wrote sensical stuff!
Florence + the Machine have been my favourite band for a while now. I even have one of their vinyl records (yes, I am hip and cool and have a turn table *finger guns*). I guess that couldn't be helped, (I sense a tangent in the Force...) as growing up pretending everything from soap holders to rubber ducks was The Yellow Submarine in the bath (thank you Dad) and telling my peers that The Beatles were better than One Direction (did not get much support for that one) could only lead me in one direction (haha. Sorry, bad pun). (I can already tell this is going to be more like rambly word vomit about my taste in music than a review. Sigh.)
I have always loved more rock-type music, which isn't as common now, so I ended up finding my favourite songs were all from sometime between late 60s to early 90s. Also, at this time my family had shoddy internet, and we only used it for school work and that was pretty much it (Netflix hadn't come to my country yet). So my primary source of music consumption was through my parent's rather large CD collection. That, along with sneaking into my nana's computer room whenever I was at her house so I could watch the newest "cool" song's music video only once and then tell my friends the next day "oh yeah, I know that song" and be swag and skux (whatever those words meant).
Anyway, I stumbled upon David Bowie (around the beginning of high school maybe...?) with Life On Mars? and oh my giddy aunt I loved that song so incredibly much. Hey, who am I kidding, that song has been my top song every year since then - I still love it to death. To put it in perspective, I have a playlist called Life On Mars? Playlist and it contains one song (give you one guess as to which song) and I put it on "shuffle" and listen to it for hours, days on end. No joke. All of a sudden I didn't care what the new songs were. I didn't even try to keep up with anything. My love for Life On Mars? inevitably expanded to all of Bowie's stuff (fun fact: when I first found Bowie I didn't have much internet access, like I mentioned before, so I always pronounced his name BOW-ie, as in take a bow, and it wasn't until many years later when I realised it was BOW-ie, like tie a bow) and now I have all the Bowie things. Like, if someone asks what I like, I rattle off a few books (obviously); Doctor Who, Star Trek and Star Wars I lump into one; and then I say David Bowie.
But this is not about Bowie, is it. It's about Florence + the Machine. (That was a huuuuuuuge tangent. I really need to put a warning up about that, yikes.) I guess they come in sometime around that time, maybe before or after. I just know the first song I heard of theirs was What Kind of Man, a single before their third studio album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. Or, well, that was the first song I heard and actively knew was theirs. The whole album came out not long after and aaaaaaahhhhhh it was so good. I then realised that Ceremonials, their previous album, I had also listened to and loved, I just didn't know it (remember, I was still an internet-less caveman at the time). Now, HB,HB,HB is still my favourite album of The Machine's, and one of my favourites of all time (tempting, but I'm not going to list off all my top albums, this has gone on long enough as it is) with Various Storms and Saints being a particularly special song for me personally.
Again though, this is not about the band, it's about this book: Useless Magic. (Well, I guess because all of the lyrics were written down I can kind of justify rambling like this.) But I have gone on for what feels like 100000 pages now, and I have no space left to comment on the actual book (sigh, again). I guess I can say with confidence that Florence Welsh is a poet and she bloody well knows it. Metaphors are completely lost on me, and so poetry is really hard, but even I can see the talent here.
But that needs to be the end now. Not much time for actual reviewy stuff. Well, it would have just been trillions of quotes from this masterpiece of a book. Everyone has probably done that already though, so go read their reviews if you want something sensical. And if you're looking for nonsense blah blah blah about things nobody cares about, well, I'm always here.
October 12, 2018
I found this book to be so beautiful. I love how the pages were filled with notes & to-do lists turned song lyrics or poetry. It had pretty little images, drawings, & scribbles of ideas woven between Florence's wonderful words. This woman is so talented. Reading her lyrics on pages was such a different experience than hearing the song or reading the lyrics on my phone. Her poetry section at the end was so great I wish it had been longer! This was a lovely read for me. Great coffee table book for sure! This hardcover, fabric-bound book... It's too stunning to sit on a shelf! Wonderful... just wonderful.
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