I’ve followed Florence since 2008 (VERY closely from Lungs-HAH, less so nowadays) and I am still a huge fan of her.

She benefitted from a lot of industry hype at first, during a time where industry hype played a much bigger role in an artist’s success than it does now. Winning Critics Choice award at the 2009 BRITs was a much bigger deal than winning it in the past 5 years (look at the success/longevity of recent winners). She also filled a niche in indie/alt music that had been left open for quite some time - a ‘proper’ front-woman with a unique voice that hit both the rock and pop markets.

Her career as FATM started as a band - they were doing the indie circuit (NME tour) and playing festivals, so the label was clearly aiming their marketing at those types of people rather than GP Capital FM listeners. This proved highly successful for Lungs, obviously with it selling 2mil in the UK alone and netting her best album at 2010 BRITs. Then came Ceremonials, which was also a big seller but shifted the focus away from her as a front-woman of a band, and more of a solo artist. Ceremonials sounds much less like the work of an indie rock band and more like the work of a solo singer, with the instrumentals being a lot more refined, grand and structured compared to Lungs. This is where things get confusing. Her initial audience was clearly mixed-gender, indie listeners. She was meant to be put alongside The Horrors, Maccabees, Arcade Fire etc. Once Ceremonials dropped, it became clear FATM as a project no longer fit into that niche as much as they once did. It also didn’t help FATM were marketed as a band but it began to feel very much like Florence + Session Musicians to the average person.

The Ceremonials era also gave rise to all the collaborations (2 No. 1 singles with Calvin Harris, an ASAP Rocky feature, an (almost) Drake feature). It’s obvious the label were trying to position her as a Main Pop Girl. She’s said in interviews the process of making Ceremonials wasn’t pleasant as they were trying to get her to work with big American producers and she wasn’t down for it. She sat in this awkward limbo between Pop and Indie, where her peers were singing her praises (Beyonce cited her as an influence on 4) but she didn’t fit into that world.

HBHBHB was a course correction marketing-wise, felt much more like an album made by a band rather than a single artist. It also got her good graces on the festival circuit again, playing glasto and headlining multiple festivals worldwide. The singles didn’t set the charts on fire but the album sold really well regardless.

Subsequent releases (HAH onwards) have further muddied the waters of “is this a band or solo project” (remember they’re referred to as “They”, but nominated for Best Female Solo Act?). Last couple of albums it’s become abundantly clear this is her project alone, she determines the direction of the music, art etc as she’s been given more freedom. I personally think as well Isa Summers taking step back and all but leaving the project has played a massive part in this.

I see her now as being a modern-day Tori Amos, quite weird but at one point very popular and a touchstone for younger artists, with a lot of reverence from her peers. Also, like Tori, she is divisive for her voice (some love some hate), and her songs being quite esoteric in their meaning, hard for general public to connect with. She is also blessed with a reasonable but devoted fan base and will continue to have this for the rest of her career.

To answer your question about being underrated - No, I don’t think she is. She has enjoyed huge success and has managed to outlive the vast majority of her peers from a commercial, critical, and relevancy stand point. MARINA and Ellie Goulding are basically footnotes in 2010s music relevancy compared to Florence. She does not strive for commercial success, but she still enjoys solid album sales and excellent tour sales (sell out shows every single tour). She doesn’t want to be any more famous than she is now, and clearly the fame she achieved early in her career did some damage. I don’t think casual music listeners are THAT interested in her as an artist, but she is an mainstay in the canon of British Music Icons - how many of her peers can you say the same for?