Universal Republic

The second album from Florence and the Machine, the Florence Welch-led group, endeavors to be grander and more expansive than its predecessor. Welch and her fellow musicians explore the corners of these tracks with a greater depth than their previous album, as if the practice of repeatedly touring one album for so long offered luminous insight into the group’s baroque rock style. If Welch felt intensely on 2009’s Lung, then she emotes even more dramatically here. “What the Water Gave Me” is ambitiously grandiose, as Welch’s dulcet voice is backed by a rush of surging instrumentals while “No Light, No Light” alternates between heaving choruses and hushed, pensive verses. There’s very little disappointment here, but on “Shake It Out,” when Welch howls, “It’s always darkest before the dawn,” you wish that she’d give an old idea newer life.