Florence and the Machine sends out a cathartic invitation in “Everybody Scream”

Collage by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

“Everybody Scream” is another musical portal the indie rock band Florence and the Machine has created that acts as an answer to a question, an expression of mortality and, most importantly, a critique of sexism in the music industry.   

Known for her themes of mysticism, folklore, ancient witchcraft and dark truths in her music — and often referenced as the “female version of Hozier” on social media — lead singer and songwriter Florence Welsh untethers herself from her past and breaks free from the bounds of constraint in this new album. 

Whether it's her English accent to Hozier’s Irish, or the singers’ use of otherworldly themes in their music, it’s ultimately their lyricism that share an immense power. 

The 16-track narrative acts as a visceral gateway to the pain and bodily autonomy of the female experience. Welsh spindles them into gold and gives voice to patriarchal hardship, attempting to make sense of it through her outcries.  

Florence and the Machine’s breakout hit was “Dog Days Are Over” from their 2009 debut studio album, “Lungs.” It quickly gained popularity, becoming the “theme song” for the 2010s, especially for its upbeat tone and catchy chorus.

The 2025 album “Everybody Scream” is quite the opposite; it ventures into the darkness and shadows in the hopes of finding itself; it stays in its cocoon like a teenager, then sneaks out at night to the forests to fly. 

This album is truly a testament to Welsh’s growth in finding her voice and taking the leap to tell the stories she truly feels passionately about. Opposed to their debut anthem of hope, the recent album’s story is not only interwoven with Welsh’s own experience having a health crisis of a miscarriage and the feelings that ensued, but also a calling to the listener’s inner demons. 

The title track “Everybody Scream” opens with warm chimes and the long tones of Welsh’s vocals, before transforming into the screams of not only her voice, but an ensemble of female voices. 

The shrieks are their own soul-stirring melody, playing throughout as if they want to claw out of the music itself and into the listener’s consciousness. It’s a cathartic exchange for those that listen, encouraging them to scream along.

Lyrics like “Everybody jump / Everybody sing / Everybody move / Everybody scream / Everybody shake / Put down your screen / Everybody up” seem less of a suggestion, but a command from Welsh to get out of your head and just move.  

The music video for the song, directed by Autumn de Wilde of the film “Emma,” embodies the spirit of the track, and is as visually striking as one of Wilde’s picturesque film scenes. 

Set in Manchester, England just after the Middle Ages, the narrative opens with Welsh clad in a red silky dress, unclear whether she’s walking towards or away from something. Within the misty countryside she is soon joined by the ensemble of screaming voices, a posse of aesthetically gothic women perhaps representative of Welsh’s inner rage. 

The group confronts a man riding backwards on a horse. While absurd, it seems to symbolize the subversion of patriarchal power or some kind of humiliation ritual. This further develops as they venture to the man’s manor, where the house guests in suits and top hats quickly seize into a possessed state upon the arrival of Welsh and her group. 

Lyrics such as, “Here I don't have to be quiet / Here I don't have to be kind, extraordinary, normal all at the same time,” seem to be referential to the unrequited freedom that Welsh’s character longed for, and now has as she dances with the other women on tables.

In other words, she embraces the wild and messy, chanting “The harvest / The needle / Protect me from evil” as a means to seal her reborn sense of self and control the power she now possesses. 

In the next track, “One of the Greats,” Welsh says what it has taken to be just that. She says, “I kept a scream inside my chest, killed everyone I'd ever kissed / Hung them on the wall like trophies, each name, a stain upon my lips / I told the truth, but could never see it through.”

Rather than a typical music video, Welsh provides a music visualizer, also directed by Wilde, to give the listener a picture of the kind of character she is portraying. Smoking a cigar in the backseat of a car, clad in a suit and sunglasses, she radiates a raw reflection of power in artistry. 

Lyrics like “It must be nice to be a man and make boring music just because you can” and “It's funny how men don't find power very sexy” are some of Welsh’s direct and bold statements that challenge the industry’s double standards.  

Songs “Witch Dance” and “Sympathy Magic” dive deeper as intimate glimpses into Welsh’s life, with “Sympathy Magic" accompanied by a music video, once again directed by Wilde. 

The music video features Welsh in the countryside yet again surrounded by the ensemble from "Everybody Scream.” Her clad in white and the others in black, Welsh seems to be shedding a piece of herself as she is supported by a guiding female solidarity. This is Welsh’s “other side of the mountain,” in other words, a moment of relief in freedom.  

Songs “Perfume and Milk,” “Buckle,” “Kraken,” “The Old Religion,” “Drink Deep,” “Music By Men,” “You Can Have It All” and my favorite of the album, “And Love,” give the album its core. With an ongoing cyclical nature of life and loss, trauma and the nature of past habits, it is these songs that solidify that change, while scary, must happen.

For as she says in “And Love,” “Peace is coming.” 

The last four tracks on the album are chamber versions of "Everybody Scream,” “Sympathy Magic,” “The Old Religion” and “Drink Deep.” These are acoustic-string versions that are on a quieter amplitude. 

Florence and the Machine’s 2026 Everybody Scream Tour has already begun and is set to hit the U.K., Europe and North America. 

Picture a typical Florence and the Machine concert experience as ethereal, concertgoers adorned in flower crowns and whimsical dresses as they dance and Welsh herself going up to fans at the barricade to embrace them. 

Be sure to give the album a listen, and certainly, without hesitation, scream along.