Florence + the Machine’s sixth full-length album comes two years after the band’s last record and manifests the dark, witchy style their music has been growing towards for years.
As the name might suggest, “Everybody Scream” has a ferocity to it, as well as an urgency. Written in the midst of touring for the band’s previous album, “Dance Fever,” the album was largely inspired by frontwoman Florence Welch’s health crisis; While on tour, an ectopic miscarriage required her to have live-saving surgery. This album allowed Welch to process this experience as she searched for stories of birth, finding stories of witchcraft, myths and grisly folktales.
Welch’s haunting opening vocals in the album’s lead single, “Everybody Scream,” demonstrate this exactly. Through chilling screams and brooding guitar by Mark Bowen of the band Idles, the album takes on a truly horrifying quality that aligns perfectly with its release date of Halloween.
The album brings both Welch and the listener on a terrifying yet cathartic journey. Welch explores every possible emotion associated with a scream, from manic joy to raw fury. “I crawled up from under the earth / Broken nails and coughing dirt” Welch sings on the record’s second single, “One of the Greats,” on which she explores the cost of fame and success. This reliance on the ugly but natural portrays the rawest parts of femininity.
Perhaps the album’s strongest aspect is its coherence; “Witch Dance” evokes a magical sense of hysterical freedom; “Sympathy Magic” brings goosebumps in exploring the powerful liberation of healing from traumatic experiences; the low-toned rhythm of “Perfume and Milk” stirs a feral feeling tied intrinsically to the cycle of life and nature. This gives the album a collective spirit, breathing life into each track that translates to the listener.
The embrace of the gritty and the gruesome also reflects the style of the artist Mistki, who is featured as a writer on both “Everybody Scream” and “Buckle.” For those familiar with Mitski, her fervid poeticism can be clearly felt in these songs, complimenting Welch’s evocative lyrics.
Welch is known for her penchant for witchcraft and divine femininity as musical inspiration. The band has been growing more experimental with each album release and — in true faithfulness to its core theme — “Everybody Scream” is a powerful embrace of what their music has naturally become.