Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry is a collection of lyrics and never before seen poetry and sketches by Florence Welch.
"Songs can be incredibly prophetic, like subconscious warnings or messages to myself, but I often don’t know what I’m trying to say till years later. Or a prediction comes true and I couldn’t do anything to stop it, so it seems like a kind of useless magic."
Background[]
Florence Welch was always an avid reader, as she recalls being a shy kid who found solace in books.[1] Before writing High As Hope, she started to write poetry, which she felt impacted the way High As Hope turned out.[2]
Florence started to write poetry towards the end of How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, some of which became songs and some that stayed as poems.[3]
Useless Magic forced Welch to look back at her past. Detailing her well-established songwriting technique she describes her songs as “subconscious warnings or messages to myself,” adding, “but I often don’t know what I’m trying to say until years later”. Once they were assembled together in print for the book, Welch was reassured by what she found.
”It’s interesting to look back on your work and see there’s been some common themes that have come up - you’ve always been interested in the same stuff. There’s something oddly comforting about that,”[1]
The book includes lyrics from her debut album, Lungs, to the most recent album at the time of the books release, High As Hope, when talking about this, Florence said that the lyrics had never really been written down anywhere because of her insecurity of it not being good enough, but that it felt good to write them down.[4]
Writing[]
Writing has always come naturally to Florence, she explained that it’s hard to know what the difference is in writing a poem and writing a song because the process is pretty similar.
”The voice that comes out is quite different, so when I’m writing a poem, I really don’t think anyone is going to see it. With a song you know you’re writing with music so you’ll probably have to play this to somebody at some point. If you’re there with a piano, music is meant to be heard, but with poetry, it’s sometimes so private and so intimate. It’s almost the more introverted side of me, because I am kind of a natural introvert, so the poetry feels like it could probably never be seen by anybody.”[2]
Contents[]
Useless Magic consists of lyrics from Lungs to High As Hope, 53 poems, 8 short poems and artwork throughout, the book itself is a hardcover bound together in a matte burgundy sleeve.
Dedication[]
"To my mother and Father"
Preface[]
Songs can be incredibly prophetic, like subconscious warnings or messages to myself, but I often don't know what I'm trying to say till years later. Or a prediction comes true and I couldn't do anything to stop it, so it seems like a kind of useless magic.
As if the song is somehow speaking through me in its own language. And I am a conduit but totally oblivion to its wisdom.
That's why poetry, or even having the lyrics written down somewhere, is strange for me. The act of singing gives the most mundane words and phrases reverence and glory. You can make a shrine out of anything. Thе song has its own personality, and is bigger and stronger than I am. WIth morе to say, just to write something down and let it stay there, on the page, seems to me an enormously vulnerable thing. And that's why poetry has in many ways turned out more exposing.
I don't know what makes a song a song and a poem a poem: they have started to bleed into each other at this stage.
You can have everything.
Artwork[]
Before the announcement of High As Hope, Florence Welch posted the cover of Useless Magic to her instagram on November 30, 2017, to announce that she’ll release her first book in 2018.[5] On December 6, 2018, Florence and the Machine announced via their instagram that the book would get an exclusive cover by Gucci.[6]
Poems[]
- I make songs to tie people to me
- I feel super…
- I ain’t never…
- I’m sorry if you…
- Grey
- We Got…
- I don’t want anything
- WEEPING
- What can I do
- The amazing self destructo girl
- I am half a bird
- No one is not loved
- My body
- Become a beacon
- I feel all at sea
- Oh what it is
- Body Of Water
- Heart Hurty
- Passive Aggressive
- The lightning
- And it’s changeing
- And the storm rolled over
- Eye’s so full of sunrise
- I let him sleep
- There can be…
- I have only…
- Collecting
- Snakes
- I see angels everywhere
- Jesus’s blood
- I could fall in love
- The lazy buttered
- Song Continued
- New York Poem (For Polly)
- Monarch Butterflies
- American Mother
- Rage
- Oh You're a Real Man
- Monster
- I woke up in bed with…
- I Like People Who’ve Seen Some Darkness
- Lochgilphead
- Depressive Packman
- Maybe It Would Be Fun
- Love Hospital
- Doomed
- Wedding
- Honeymoon
- The tenderest emptiness
- I Guess I Won’t Write Poetry
- God is not in your phone
- Song
- I Cannot Write About This
Short poems[]
| Slow Miracle |
|---|
 Miracle" |
| Isn’t it adream… |
|---|
 |
| We’re not out… |
|---|
 (the woods) (me) (you)" |
| 2 Knives |
|---|
 In a gift box" |
| Sad Days |
|---|
 Days Drifting" |
| Anti F-boy |
|---|
 magic magic" |
| False Gods |
|---|
 New Gods No Gods" |
| World wide |
|---|
 heartbreak tour" |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2018/06/florence-welch-poetry-can-reveal-part-of-yourself-you-did-not-know
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://crfashionbook.com/celebrity-a25427355-florence-welch-poetry-book-useless-magic/
- ↑ https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/florence-welch-poetry
- ↑ https://youtu.be/BeDkJLUHySY
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BcHhucJDU2E/?igshid=YmM0MjE2YWMzOA==
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BrDZZdPFemq/?igshid=YmM0MjE2YWMzOA==