Last year was a big one for Florence + the Machine, with the success of How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful resulting in a massively well-received tour and a number of show-stealing festival stops. The record was also accompanied by a series of videos directed by Vincent Haycock, as part of a big-picture project that would only come to fruition upon completion of all its parts.
The completed project is a 47-minute movie chronicling a narrative to songs like “What Kind Of Man,” “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful,” “St. Jude,” “Ship To Wreck,” “Queen Of Peace,” and “Delilah.” There are also new scenes and a new final segment, set to the track “Third Eye.”
Frontwoman Florence Welch described the last chapter in her own words on Facebook:
“This is the finale of a very personal project that came from a conversation me and Vince had in the Chateau Marmont about a year and a half ago while I was writing How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. I was talking to him about the record and the car crash of a relationship break up I was going through. The highs and the lows of love and performance, how out of control I felt, the purgatory of heartbreak, and how I was trying to change and trying to be free. And we decided we would re-tell this story in full.”
Haycock noted:
“The Odyssey, like the epic poem by Homer, is a journey. It’s Florence’s personal journey to find herself again after the emotional storm of a heartbreak. Like the layers of Dante’s purgatory, each song or chapter represents a battle that Florence traversed and physical landscape that embodied each song or story. Its a metaphorical journey about escaping your demons, confronting yourself and returning to the original Florence, the dancer, the performer, the lover.”
Watch The Odyssey in full at the official Florence + The Machine website.
