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May 23, 2018 By Christopher Roberts Florence and the Machine

Last night was the season finale of NBC’s singing competition show The Voice. It wasn’t all that surprising to Florence + the Machine (aka Florence Welch and backing band) performed recent single “Hunger” as a means to promote her upcoming new album High As Hope. After all she is a theatrical pop vocalist with stage presence to spare. Less likely was rock singer/songwriter/guitarist Ryan Adams, clad in a Sonic Youth T-shirt, performing “Be Without You” (from last year’s Prisoner album) as a duet with 17-year-old contestant Britton Buchanan, who ended up coming in second place this year. Watch both performances below.

Welch is releasing a new album, High As Hope, on June 29 via Republic. Previously she shared a video for “Hunger” (which was one of our Songs of the Week) and performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The album features Kamasi Washington, Sampha, Tobias Jesso Jr, Kelsey Lu, and Jamie xx. Florence + the Machine shared a brand new song, “Sky Full of Song,” in April and it was released on limited edition 7-inch on Record Store Day (it was one of our Songs of the Week). It is also included on the album.

Welch wrote, co-produced, and recorded the majority of High As Hope by herself, cycling to her studio in Peckham every day. It’s the first time she’s co-produced a Florence + the Machine album. Then she finished the songs in Los Angeles with her friend and co-producer Emile Haynie and mixed the album in New York. Her daily views of the New York skyline inspired the album’s title, because, as a previous press release said, the NYC skyline is “often in stark contrast to the chaos of the wider world.”

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