"She doesn't always emerge unscathed, but at least she's alive. Each new Florence and the Machine album opens on Florence Welch in the aftermath of a tsunami, attempting to make sense of her circumstances as she prepares to charge forth into the unknown. The London band's sixth album, Everybody Scream, is again dedicated to finding strength in release from physical and psychological inhibitions."
""There's a feeling of dying a little bit, every time I make a record," Welch told The Guardian earlier this year. "And, this time, I nearly died." That's not hyperbole: While touring Dance Fever in 2023, Welch underwent life-saving surgery, which she's now revealed was due to massive internal bleeding caused by an ectopic pregnancy. The trauma of miscarriage is evident in the fury that fuels Everybody Scream: 'Sometimes my body seems so alien to me,' Welch sings over the steady chug of 'Kraken,' sounding despairingly numb before transforming into a creature of wrath."
"Swelling strings, sweeping choruses, and Welch's mythical timbre abound. Idles' Mark Bowen and the National's Aaron Dessner handle the bulk of the album's production (though Mitski makes a cameo on the title track and "Buckle"). Bowen's influence suggests itself in a slightly more raucous approach, at least by Florence and the Machine standards. The opening title track springs from cascading harp to monstrous drones as it celebrates the safe haven of the concert hall, much like Dance Fever's "Free.""
Everybody Scream frames Florence Welch as a survivor who repeatedly confronts physical and psychological rupture and then charges into renewal. The album centers on release and resilience, pairing anthemic, horizon-spanning songs with swelling strings, massive drums, and impassioned vocal catharsis. Welch's near-fatal medical crisis and miscarriage inform a raw, furious emotional core across songs such as "Kraken" and "The Old Religion." Producers Mark Bowen and Aaron Dessner shape a cinematic, occasionally raucous sound, with Mitski contributing to two tracks. The record emphasizes communal refuge found in performance and the liberating power of expressive release.
#florence-and-the-machine #everybody-scream #trauma-and-resilience #arena-pop-baroque #production-collaborators
Read at Pitchfork
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]