After a feverish 24 hours of hype and excitement among the Florence + The Machine fanbase, it’s been confirmed: they’re back.
With new material teased on social media earlier this week — by Welch herself, breaking her months-long Twitter silence — fans became convinced that we would be given the first taste of the long-awaited follow-up to the band’s 2018 album, High As Hope.
And so it turned out. The song, King, has arrived, and it sounds as if it’s worth the wait. With a driving drumbeat and Florence Welch’s typically powerful vocals, it’s an impassioned rebuttal of the gender roles foisted upon women. “I am no mother, I am no bride - I am king,” she sings.
“As an artist, I never actually thought about my gender that much,” Welch explained as she unveiled the new track. “I just got on with it. I was as good as the men and I just went out there and matched them every time.
“But now, thinking about being a woman in my 30s and the future… I suddenly feel this tearing of my identity and my desires. That to be a performer, but also to want a family might not be as simple for me as it is for my male counterparts. I had modelled myself almost exclusively on male performers, and for the first time I felt a wall come down between me and my idols as I have to make decisions they did not.”
The track is accompanied by a surreal video, directed by Autumn de Wilde, whose debut film Emma. was nominated for two Oscars back in 2020.
Is this the first song from a new album, then? It’s yet to be confirmed officially, but it wouldn’t be unlikely. Watch this space.
