Florence And The Machine (stylized in some cases as Florence + The Machine) is an indie pop band that reeks greatness on just about any track they get their creative minds wrapped up in. Lead singer Florence Welch has a way with making simple words sound out-of-this-world with her voice, and the lyrics of their songs string together a flow that seems ethereal, it pierces through you whole. Seven Devils is the 8th track off their 2011 album Ceremonials, an album that by itself speaks volumes with the songs it contains.
Seven Devils can be likened to the story of a reckoning at the end of a broken relationship. Florence decides to burn her lover’s ‘kingdom’ down (which would be a metaphor for tearing his life into pieces). In the lines ‘I don’t want your money, I don’t want your crowd’ Florence refers to her lover telling him he can’t buy her off with money or the attention of his friends/admirers/fans, because she plans on exposing him and letting the truth be known to all.
The Seven Devils in the song are more or less the feelings of bitterness, sorrow and anger felt from the lies and deceit she had been fed. This all resulted in her waking up dead each morning, because she realized the lie she had been living in. And here is a part that gets truly religious… Seven demons were cast out of Mary Magdalene, someone who had been regarded as a harlot and later took her stand as one of the Apostles (whether it was accepted or not). The part about Florence claiming holy water wouldn’t help signifies her wish to not be calmed, so she can fully exorcise the love of the one who broke her heart, and free him of all the lies he was basking in.
“Holy water cannot help you now. A thousand armies couldn’t keep me out” are the first two lines that begin the song, with the second line stating just how much willpower Florence has pelt up in her. Hell hath no fury… you know the deal. Seven Devils is not a song to be taken with a superstitious look (as some people I’ve played the song for have done) as the name does not describe any alliance with the occult or whatever black magic you may want to stir up. It is a song about a woman’s journey through the lies and the aftermath of a broken heart and how she plans redemption and the truth being told. Overall, it is sounds like something that heaven would write.
