- published: 21 May 2016
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Florence and the Machine (stylised as Florence + the Machine) are an English indie pop band, consisting of lead singer Florence Welch and a collaboration of other artists who provide backing music. The band's music received praise across the music media, especially from the BBC, before they gained mainstream success. Specifically, the BBC played a large part in their rise to prominence by promoting Florence and the Machine as part of BBC Introducing.
The band's debut album, Lungs, was released on 6 July 2009, and held the number-two position for its first five weeks on the UK Albums Chart. On 17 January 2010, the album reached the top position, after being on the chart for twenty-eight consecutive weeks. As of October 2010, the album had been in the top forty in the United Kingdom for sixty-five consecutive weeks, making it one of the best-selling albums of 2009 and 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.
Florence (Italian: Firenze [fiˈrɛntse] ( listen), alternate obsolete form: Fiorenza; Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.
Florence is famous for its history. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.
The historic centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year, and Euromonitor International ranked the city as the world's 72nd most visited in 2009, with 1,685,000 visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the city is noted for its history, culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace, amongst others, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.
The visions have become real
A technocratic sight,
Mankind's flow corrupted
Dimensions of control.
The arch-emotions are lost,
But desire remains.
A free spirit again - unwanted.
A machine, Newtopias heart
The future curse
The machine, A cyborg tool
Mens power is gone
A machine, industrination
It's the systems fall!
A virtual admission of guilt, confession
Orwell's future tense, libertcidal
The species enslaved, the will is broken
To avert doom - obnoxious.
A machine, Supernatural reign
The futures curse
The machine, The creature a fool
Mens power is gone
A machine, exploitation
It's the systems fall!
A machine, Newtopias heart
A virtual world
The machine, A cyborg tool
The control is lost
A machine, industrination