It’s starting strong. In the first few lines of the first song, “King”, Florence Welch lays her biggest problems on the table: “We argue in the kitchen about whether to have children/ About the world ending and the scale of my ambition/ And how much is art really worth.” How can a woman cope who wants many things at once – and doesn’t even know if her music still means anything given the state of the world? A woman is a fickle shapeshifter, the singer later explains, and then she decides: “I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king.” Step aside, kings, here I come! With all the self-doubt, with all the uncertainty, and still: wildly determined.
Florence invites you to dance while at the same time thinking is possible
Unfortunately, the rest of their fifth album doesn’t quite live up to that statement. Florence started recording two years ago in New York with regular producer Jack Antonoff, then the pandemic threw her back to London. She turned to Dave Bayley (Glass Animals) who gave her some more club sounds. But there’s no real “dance fever” and that’s not necessary. Others can animate you to dance better, Florence invites you to dance while at the same time thinking is possible.
Even with “Choreomania”, a song about a deadly dance ritual, the beat is not too intrusive, even if everything here is designed for euphoria and reveling. The infatuation takes place elsewhere – when Florence, as a songwriter, orients itself towards her classical colleagues (Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams et al.) – and as in “Girls Against God” describes life laconically: “It’s good to be alive/ Crying into cereal at midnight.”
Whether she portrays herself as “Dream Girl Evil” who no longer wants to conform to her lover’s ideas, or admits in “Morning Elvis” that she often doesn’t feel royal at all: lyrics and voice unerringly hit different nerves, just the melodies sometimes lack that tinder. “Sometimes you get the girl/ Sometimes you get the song,” she sings on “The Bomb.” The woman is currently even stronger than the song.
SIMILAR REVIEWS
Florence + The Machine :: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Florence Welch and how she sees the world: Big pop with moments of sober clarity, blazing fanfares and daring.
Emmylou Harris :: Hard Bargain
SIMILAR ARTICLES
Florence + the Machine announce new album DANCE FEVER
Florence Welch and her band’s fifth album is out in May. Three songs can already be heard from it. Watch the new music and dance video for “My Love” here.
Womanhood vs. career: Florence + the Machine release new song “King”
“As a woman in my 30s, I now have to make decisions that male artists didn’t have to make,” says Florence Welch of the thinking behind her new song “King”. Watch the video here.
Tempelhof Sounds: Florence + The Machine are the third headliner
16 more acts, plus the third headliner. Presented by ROLLING STONE
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