Florence and the Machine
It’s difficult to imagine what the current landscape of female indie musicians would look like if not for Florence and the Machine. Since the late Aughts, “Dog Days Are Over” has ushered in every summer. “You’ve Got the Love” still echoes in the aisles of half-empty grocery stores in every suburb. The biggest pop stars seek out Florence Welch for collaboration, and she could easily be credited with the popularization of modern baroque pop. The group’s contributions to the sound and popularity of indie rock today are immense. In 2015, Welch was the first woman to headline the legendary Glastonbury Festival in the 21st century — both a massive honor and an alarming example of how hard women must fight to play on the same stages men squander. Florence and the Machine have produced record after record to public and critical acclaim. The latest is Everybody Scream, fittingly released on Halloween.
Much of Everybody Scream reflects the violence and grief of womanhood, with many references to witches, the groups of women throughout history that their societies could not understand. It grapples with the price of fame and artistry and wrestles with lost love and morality. The album was born out of a near-death experience Welch had while completing the band’s last tour, when she miscarried an ectopic pregnancy while onstage. “The closest I came to making life was the closest I came to death,” Welch told The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson ahead of the album’s release. “And I felt like I had stepped through this door, and it was just full of women, screaming.”
Everybody Scream’s title track is the embodiment of the band’s live show experience. It exists in conversation with the fan base gathered en masse — no longer a collection of individuals but a breathing, singular organism with a hive mind, equally capable of worship and destruction. The song was co-written with Mitski and Mark Bowen of Idles, whose experiences with the subject matter no doubt strengthen the power of the song.
Welch has a particular talent for saying the things many feel but few can materialize into words. There is no better example than “One of the Greats,” a highlight of the album if not the entire Florence and the Machine discography. The song investigates the question of who gets to be great — usually men — and if it’s worth the excessive cost. When the song debuted live on the BBC during Radio 1’s New Music Show with Jack Saunders, Welch revealed that, like many of her songs, “One of the Greats” began as a long-form poem, and it was recorded in a single take with guitar accompaniment from Bowen. It’s a study of patriarchy and a scathing take on the music industry at large, but it’s deeply humorous and self-reflective. As Welch sings, “It must be nice to be a man / And make boring music just because you can.”
Everybody Scream dances with darkness more than many of the band’s other records, save maybe 2015’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, but Welch and company’s signature ethereality is present just the same. “Sympathy Magic” sounds like the perfect soundtrack for frolicking in a meadow; “Kraken” is wickedly playful and as mysterious as its namesake creature. “Music by Men” is an especially grounded moment in the record, breaking through the illusions and allusions with the hollowed refrain of a love faded away. It’s not always Men who are the problem — sometimes it’s just a man you thought you could trust, one you thought you loved. By the time the record ends, Welch has answered many of her own questions, or learned to accept that the answers simply are not there. Maybe one can have everything — fame and love — just not without grief and loss (“You Can Have It All”). That is womanhood, the rawness of it all, to hold it all at once.
Florence and the Machine will bring the Everybody Scream Tour to Bridgestone Arena on Saturday. They’ll be joined by Irish country singer and Welch’s fellow ginger CMAT, whose 2025 record Euro-Country was celebrated with critical acclaim and sold-out shows including one at The Basement East. Very limited tickets remained as of this writing (and that includes ones available via Verified Resale). The stage is Florence Welch’s home, and it will be glorious to see her return to her rightful place there in Nashville this week.
