A few months ago, I bought Florence and The Machine's new album, Ceremonials. 
The Fleet of Hope
The fisherman comes up
Puts his two poles in the sand
He stares out at the sea
Just exactly like me
But I've got a book in my hand
We will have caught on to something by the end of the day
But mostly we think about the one that got away.
I've seen like a bird
What pleasures the surface can bring
I've lost my best craft
Going foolishly back
To where to Sirens sing
I've stared up at the place where the water meets the sky
And though I stopped breathing I still believe I should try
Maybe a boat in search of lost treasures will pass by.
'Cause the fleet of hope is so pretty
When she's shining in the port
And the harbor clings to the jetty
For protection and support
Out in the choppy waters the sharks swim and play
You're all washed up when Poseidon has his day.
I've walked through the desert
Climbed over mountains so high
Through jungles and plains
I took buses and trains
And airplanes across the sky
But none as seductive as ocean before me alone
And now I know why
You layered your pockets with stones.
'Cause the fleet of hope is so pretty
When she's shining in the port
And the harbor clings to the jetty
For protection and support
Out in the choppy waters the sharks swim and play
You're all washed up when Poseidon has his day.
When I was a girl
All of my fancy took flight
And I had this dream
Could outshine anything
Even the darkest night
Now I wait like a widow for someone to come back from sea
I've always known
I was waiting for me
'Cause the fleet of hope is so pretty
When she's shining in the port
And the harbor clings to the jetty
For protection and support
Out in the choppy waters the sharks swim and play
You're all washed up when Poseidon has his day.
Here is the song:Now here are lyrics that aren't just about creating a mood. The song is introspective and while the singer comes to understand why Virginia Woolf might have committed suicide by drowning in the ocean, the singer also understands that that feeling is just a part of the seductiveness of the ocean and is not to be followed. After all, the ocean is not as gentle as she sometimes looks for, "Out in the choppy waters the sharks swim and play/ You're all washed up when Poseidon has his day." Florence also sings about how the sea can be cruel, i.e., "cause she's a cruel mistress," but even so, the singer wants to be laid down with "pockets full of stones." Like I said, I have a problem with that.
This is not the first time that Florence Welch has had trouble with her lyrics' interpretations. Her fun song on her first album, "Kiss with a Fist," with its violent imagery had some feminists up in arms, because unless one knows what Welch's interpretation of the song is, one is going to assume that it is promoting domestic violence. (Welch maintains that that was not her intent, but that the violent words are about an intense relationship, but not a physically abusive one.) I am not going to stop listening to either songs, but I do think that Welch should be a little more careful when composing the lyrics to go with her music.
Hope Is Real
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I have to agree with you that the lyrics of "What the water gave me" do seem to romanticize suicide. Florence Welch even said in an interview that she thinks there is a kind of romance in drowning because it isn't bloody or violent. My sister recommended I listen to the song because I'm a big Virginia Woolf fan so she thought I would love it but I was turned off the second I read the lyrics. It is a very pretty song but it really bothers me that she would sing about her suicide and death so romantically. I also want to point out that Virginia drowned in the river Ouse, not in the ocean, so those Indigo Girl lyrics really make no sense, but maybe I'm just being nitpicky.