Florence + The Machine - Everybody Scream
Oh, she got some things TO SAY.
Florence + the Machine return with their sixth studio album, Everybody Scream. This time, Florence Welch teamed up with one and only Aaron Dessner, IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen, singer Mitski, and producer Danny L Harle. The result is probably the most personal album Florence has ever made. It’s filled with contrasting emotions, soft reflection, and heavy lyrics.
As we recently learned from Florence herself, in 2023 she went through a terrible time — ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage that nearly cost her life. This loss became one of the central themes of the record. Here, Florence faces her PTSD, grief, and the process of rediscovering her femininity. There’s also the heartbreak and disconnection that followed with her partner in the aftermath of this trauma — “A crowd of thousands came to see me, and you couldn’t reply for three days”. The album is full of desperation, reflections, anger, confusion — but also explores what saved her: art, music, the stage. But this part of her life is also complex.
She looks at the stage not as a place to escape, but as a space to heal and to reconnect with her power and her audience. She didn’t announce the tragedy back in 2023; instead, she quietly stepped away and turned her pain into a piece of art that tells the story in every tiny emotional detail. Florence is one of those artists who can disappear completely and then return with a clear concept and sound — and that’s why her music never feels exhausting.
Everybody Scream also looks back to her earlier albums — Dance Fever, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, and Lungs — with some lyrical callbacks and comparisons to how things used to be. Another major theme here is the industry itself — patriarchy, double standards, and the ongoing fight for equality. And she doesn’t hold back her words, reminding us that this battle still continues, not only in the music world but in all industries.
“Breaking my bones, getting four out of five
Listening to a song by The 1975
I thought, fuck it, I might as well give music by men a try”.
Sonically, this album is more intense and emotionally charged than Dance Fever. It feels raw, with a devastating energy that hits you hard. Yet by the end, it leaves a small but persistent sense of hope shimmering in the distance. The music itself is grand, beautiful, and typical of Florence + the Machine’s style, though it occasionally wanders into fascinating sonic detours that keep it fresh. It’s as if she pieced together fragments of her past works and turned them into one big, collective “let’s discuss it” moment.
However, the second half of the record drifts into more abstract territory — around the songs “Kraken,” “The Old Religion,” and “Drink Deep” — where the story loses a bit of focus. Still, the first half stands as an absolutely powerful and emotionally breathtaking experience.
In the end, Everybody Scream feels like an honest, passionate, and deeply open album. It’s raw, heartfelt, and vulnerable. Florence shares the most intimate and terrifying moment of her life, transforming grief, sorrow, and confusion into art. It might not be perfect — but who ever has a perfect version of pain or loss? What matters is the honesty she brings, and the rediscovery of nearly every part of her life that she’s now ready to share with us. And we’ll listen.
“When it's at its darkest, it's my favourite bit”.
8.0/10
