Florence and the Machine is back with bite with ‘Everybody Scream’
When Florence and the Machine announced that her new album, Everybody Scream, was set to be released on October 31st, fans could already guess what direction she was taking. On the titular track, Florence Welch takes a bite of the poison apple and welcomes the listener into a world that is dark, broody, and outrageously seductive.
The song comes a week after the ‘You’ve Got the Love’ singer posted an unsettling video of herself to social media, in which she was depicted frantically digging a hole in the ground and screaming into it. It’s not a stretch to say that what could be heard on the other side of the abyss might sound something just like ‘Everybody Scream’.
Apt for the album opener, it begins with a mythical, jangly synth, and cult-like vocables flexing Welch’s incredible vocal timbre and range. Soon, a heavy drum kicks in, and things take a turn for the weird. The beat pushes forward, dangerous and inviting.
In the pre-chorus breakdown, Welch commands the listener to dance, sing, move, and scream. She is in full control. Here, in the gothic-inspired music video directed by Autum de Wild and featuring Mark Bowen of Idles, the singer-songwriter parties and dances with ghosts and ghouls, dressed all in red. The track is produced expertly and plays with darker, heavier influences, most notable in the dipping guitar riff that unravels into the chorus.
After five studio albums, Welch’s attack on the demands of the industry comes to the forefront in the racing track. She details the parasocial relations of those “breathless, begging and screaming my name” as Welch bursts through the ceiling. She muses on the expectation to be “extraordinarily normal at the same time.”
As always, Welch deftly depicts a painful world in which she has no choice but to partake. This time, however, it seems Welch is conjuring the spell.
The track leans even further into ghoulish mysticism for an eerie, if abrupt, ending. “So witchcraft, the medicine, the spells and the injections / the harvest, the needle protect me from evil / the magic and the misery, madness and the mystery / Oh, what has it done to me?”
Welch might be ruined by the necessary evil she must excavate from within to make music as enchanting and addictive as ‘Everybody Scream’, but the listener is certainly all the better for it.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.