Download of the Day x2 6/17: "You've Got The Love" by Florence + The Machine and "You've Got The Dirtee Love" featuring Dizzee Rascal

X2

Don't you just hate being out of the loop?

Actually, I had a very barebones knowledge of Florence + The Machine before last night, because of her performance with UK Grime artist Dizzee Rascal at the BRIT Awards earlier this year. I wasn't really paying much attention, since all I really cared about was seeing Lady Gaga's performance.

So, how did I re-discover her this time around? Through iTunes, of course.

Florence + The Machine (which is just the recording name of Florence Welch, in the vein of Owl City) showed up as a related artist of Ellie Goulding, whose song "Starry Eyed" I was listening to. Remembering the name, I popped over to Youtube and found her BRITS mash-up with Dizzee, which was released digitally as "You've Got The Dirtee Love". It was an amazing performance on both sides, but what really got to me was Florence's powerful, unqiue voice. So, I looked up the original version of the song (without the "dirtee" in the title), off of her BRIT-winning debut album Lungs. I certainly wasn't disappointed. "You've Got The Love" is indie pop at it's most ethereal, with Florence playing the role as the wailing forest nymph. Her passionate delivery on lyrics like "when food is gone, you're my daily meal" is very affecting. Her voice is one of the most intriguing I have heard in a long time, since maybe Amy Winehouse.

As for the BRITS performance, I was thoroughly surprised by how well the two thoroughly different artists meshed together. I'm not familiar with grime music (a blend of house and hip hop), but if Dizzie is one of the best out there (he has 4 #1s in the UK), then I need to check it out. Dizzie's flow is excellent, and he is definitely charismatic. He and Florence had oodles of musical chemistry, and if it's possible, she sounded better than on the recording, something only the best singers can pull off. It's easy to see why the mash-up was thisclose to topping the charts, stalling at #2.

Thankfully for us Americans, both versions of the song are available on iTunes, so I would check them out indefinitely.

Ratings: You've Got The Love (8/10); You Got The Dirtee Love (8.5/10)