In August 2023, Florence + The Machine’s lead singer and songwriter, Florence Welch, experienced a brush with death after a miscarriage sent her to the hospital for a life-saving surgery. Released on Oct. 31, their sixth studio album Everybody Scream confronts this trauma with 12 confessional tracks laced with ache and mysticism.
“There was an urgency to this record,” Welch told Apple Music in an interview on Oct. 22. “It came out of me in this furious burst.”
Florence + The Machine ascended out of London’s alternative scene in the late 2000s, their unique sound characterized by an earthy blend of alternative rock and chamber pop. Everybody Scream stands out from the group’s discography as the rawest and most confessional album.
Welch said she made the decision to start a family at the end of her latest tour after spending most of her adulthood feeling unprepared. Shortly after she became pregnant, a doctor’s visit revealed life-threatening internal bleeding caused by a ruptured fallopian tube. The ensuing physical and emotional pain inspired this album, defined by an energy Welch called “primal.”
Kicking off the album, Welch explores the relationship between her career and personal life in “Everybody Scream.” Fronted by a gritty guitar tone and with writing contributions from Mitski, the track describes Welch’s hunger to return to the stage in a borderline lustful tone.
“Here I can take up the whole of the sky,” Welch sings. “Aren’t you so glad I came? Breathless and begging and screaming my name.”
Welch frames central themes of loss and resilience through a feminist lens. She said she felt her experience reflected the struggles of many women in their late 30s who feel pressured to decide between their passion and starting a family. She names her frustrations on “One of the Greats,” whose sardonic bridge confronts an industry she feels looks past the work of middle-aged women.
Later, Welch bridges sorrow and desire through an anxious vibrato on “Witch Dance.” The song builds into a gothic erotic journey that starts with Welch opening her legs to death and ends with her running through a foggy town into a clearing full of sobbing women.
Welch undercuts the album’s sharp craft with a couple of mid-tracklist missteps. “Music by Men” feels especially underdeveloped, wasting an emotionally evocative acoustic guitar lead on lyrics like, “I fall in love with everyone I meet for ten minutes at least / Then comes the work, the resentments, and the hurt / Picking at your haircut and that stupid band T-shirt.”
Despite venturing into dark territory, Everybody Scream ends on a hopeful note. Welch closes the album with “And Love,” reflecting on what she learned about love through a cascading and lush progression.
“I wanted to end it on this sense of peace and resting and getting to breathe out,” Welch said.
In a musical landscape rife with cryptic lyricism and abstract concept albums, Everybody Scream proves refreshingly candid. Welch trades commercial appeal for vulnerability, singing through her suffering and offering a hand to anyone in grief.
3 ½ screams out of 5.
