She's already sung Aretha Franklin at the Grammys and provided the luscious soundtrack to Julia Roberts' onscreen gelato binges in Eat Pray Love, so what does Florence Welch do next?

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Given her reputation as one of pop’s ultimate drama queens, it should come as no surprise that Florence Welch has made everything bigger, bolder and more theatrical on her second album.

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Epic. It’s a word thrown around so much these days that it has almost lost all meaning, but not when it comes to Florence & The Machine, whose sophomore album Ceremonials re-defines the word with massive instrumentation, wailing choruses and lyrics deeper than one of Lucas’ vintage One Tree Hill epilogues (‘Fail’ – Metaphor Police).

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While there’s no denying that the voice of Florence Welch is a bit like Marmite, the last two years have shown that she has many more lovers than haters, and deservedly so. Her unique sound and original lyrics paint stunning images of a spiritual world, where the joy of being alive is palpable.

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Ceremonials is Welch barreling off a cliff on wings made of dear-diary sentiment, art-school theatrics, and pure-cut sincerity, and somehow, against all odds, she manages to soar.

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A rare sophomore outing that not only manages to avoid the slump, but bests its predecessor in the process.

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She's growing into her role as the wild woman of pop, and the charts would be significantly more ordinary without her

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Florence Welch's new album 'Ceremonials' is bursting with sound .

Florence Welch launches her second album with a conjunction: “And I had a dream…” It’s as if she knows she already has our attention and is confidently picking up the threads of an urgent conversation.

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Good thing, then, that denial has as little place as secrecy on Ceremonials, which is a conversation that consists entirely in affirmations, and at its best, in those of the shared, soul-bearing kind so satisfying you could forget you ever wanted anything else from a musician.

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Welch may never do anything as dangerous and uncouth as "Kiss" ever again. But even the threat of menace works wonders on terrific follow-up Ceremonials.

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It's bigger, brighter and braver than what went before, and should elevate Florence even higher, with her Machine shoulder to shoulder.

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No matter. There’s an air of inevitability around this album’s impending ubiquity, and its success will be richly deserved.

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Shattering the notion of 'the difficult second album', Ceremonials can only further elevate Florence Welch towards super-stardom.

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The mood of Florence Welch's second album is set by the cover, on which Welch appears to be posing for Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

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For her follow-up to Lungs, Florence Welch wanted to make something "dramatic and really huge and kind of spooky", an intention which Ceremonials bears out with storm-cloud arrangements, big, rolling drum riffs and ghost-story songs.

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All grandeur but little grace, Ceremonials lacks the heart of Florence’s debut LP.

This is all grandeur without any grace.

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The fact that she was expected to reach such heights does not, however, dilute what an achievement Ceremonials is. In fact if anything it makes it all the more satisying, and opens even greater possibilities as to how good she could get should she improve further.

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