The very talented Florence and the Machine had the very bad luck of appearing on an episode of "Saturday Night Live" packed with musical moments that landed right on the mark this weekend. In "The Miley Cyrus Show," Vanessa Bayer again nailed the Disney star's loquacious, nasal goofiness ("As y'all probably heard, I'm sexy now") and host Anne Hathaway turned out a genuinely hilarious Katie Holmes impression. During "Weekend Update," Jay Pharoah broke out amazingly dead-on impersonations of Jay-Z, Drake, and the Notorious B.I.G.'s flows. And a commercial for a kids' movie soundtrack called "Horse Play" featured Randy Newman (a marble-mouthed Fred Armisen), the Cranberries (Kristen Wiig yelping, "Don't eat the field, horsie/Oats, oats, oats, oats"), Alanis Morissette (an angsty Hathaway), Robert Smith (Andy Samberg in a feathered black wig), Adam Lambert (Jason Sudeikis in a feathered black wig, yelling), and Cee Lo Green (Kenan Thompson with the perfect horse gag: "Buck You"). Florence kept her set-up tastefully simple, but what we'll assume was an in-ear-monitors-gone-wrong tragedy soured her two tunes.
Song 1: "Dog Days Are Over"
-10 for singing off-key (albeit continually in the same incorrect key)
+5 for still showing off her mighty pipes -- even off-key
+2 for putting her harpist front and center (Joanna Newsom-dating Samberg must have been pleased)
+1 for decorating the stage with bare light bulbs in bird cages and a trio of backup dancers doing their best girl group shimmy
+4 for wearing yet another outfit that could have doubled as a "Dancing With the Stars" costume (see Chassagne, Régine)
Song 2: "You've Got the Love"
-6 for aggressive off-key singing at the end of the song ("You've got the love!" into a particularly painful "Yeah!")
+2 for haunting, possessed eye contact with camera
-5 for not doing anything else noteworthy enough for us to mention -- especially since the band's own "Dog Days Are Over" video could have provided the visual inspiration for Kanye West's innovative "SNL" performance
Overall:
+5 for being generally awesome
-2 for missing the chance to prove that to the "SNL" audience who may have missed the band's killer VMAs performance: seriously, watch it now
Final GPA: B-