Album Review: Florence + The Machine, Everybody Scream

Hallowe’en is upon us, and Florence + The Machine are coming for you! Well, at least that’s the feeling you get from the off, on the band’s sixth studio album, as the title track smashes open this crackerjack of a record, insisting, “Everybody dance / Everybody sing / Everybody move / Everybody scream”.

A social media post from the group contained the phrase Swans v Adele, and that, with Idles’ Mark Bowen in a collaborative seat, is a perfect summation of the opener. It also plays with the dualistic relationship of an in-demand frontwoman and their baying audience.

Indeed ‘One Of The Greats’ is something of a manifesto of same: “To show you how it's done, to show you what it takes / To conquer and to crucify, to become one of the greats” . It’s marvellous, and every single line – all 70-odd of them – is imminently quotable.

The production across the wonderful breakbeat of ‘Witch Dance’ is exquisite, concocting a plush folk-horror worthy of Emily Brontë amid chattering foxes, chummy cats, consorting dogs, and chasing packs of demonic showbiz figures in pursuit of our monster hero. ‘

Kraken’ reprises the doppelgänger monster theme, with scratched guitar and multi-tracked vocals exploding into sonic synth heaven. The lyrically riotous ‘Music By Men’, meanwhile, doubles down on the warning that you don’t want to piss off Florence.

9/10