Florence Welch is definitely embracing a darker style with new album Everybody Scream. The sound is one she’s dabbled in for a while now but it’s light years away from the Dancefloor pop that started her career.
The moody tracks on Everybody Scream tell a story of strength and survival, of being a woman and an artist, and drift into a more folk style at times (Perfume & Milk, The Old Religion). It’s powerful. The result is an album with a strong, distinctive voice. Ironically, it’s almost as if Florence + The Machine has set the bar too high with some tracks; there’s a sense at times of feeling a little cheated when a song isn’t one of the strongest – until you step away and realise that even the “average” tracks on this album are still way above par. For example, opening track Everybody Scream didn’t really resonate with me. It felt like it was trying to be too much, and I hear elements of everything from pop to musical theatre. But as a stand alone track, it’s good – it just didn’t linger in the same way some of the others did.
Lyrically, it’s a wonderful collection, possibly her best. You can truly hear Mitski’s influence, and while she only collaborated on a couple of tracks it definitely feels as though she helped set the tone for the album as a whole. Musically I connected more strongly with songs such as One of the Greats. Initially drawn in by the repetition of ‘arms outstretched back from the dead’, I also love the contrast between the really powerful sections and the more stripped back portions of the song. The lyrics are iconic too. It was a favourite from the first moment I heard it.
I also loved the folk/country flavoured Buckle. The catchy chorus is perfect and the story of the addiction to someone you know isn’t good for you but yet you keep going back, that crushing vulnerability of “yes I’m awesome but I’m also messed up and I cant walk away” shines through strongly and really dictates the power of this number.
Perfume & Milk deserves a mention too. This is one of the softer tracks on the album, but it still has an edge to it. It can be found in the undertones of the lyrics and the slight aggression in the guitar, but then it breaks into this light airy vocal lift for a moment – like she’s putting on her public face of “everything is fine”. I’m blown away by the emotional complexity of these tracks and how you can feel it through the music even before you really tune into the lyrics
Florence’s unique voice has always been unmatched and it’s what makes her magical in the studio. She uses that to great effect on this album. The tracks are vocally interesting, and her taking time to hold back really makes those moment where she goes full pelt stand out and you just go “wow”. The lyrical strength means she doesn’t need that power behind everything and it’s incredibly well produced in this regard.
It’s an album of stories and feelings that captures the power of songwriting in just the right way. In a year of big feelings albums from a number of female song writers, this is one that’s going to soar.
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