Florence + the Machine’s sixth studio album entitled Everybody Scream, released on October 31, 2025, is a window into one of the most vulnerable experiences and topics that Florence + the Machine and Florence Welch have explored in the band’s 17 years of mainstream existence.
The backdrop for this album
The backdrop for this album is Welch’s survival of a nearly fatal ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage in August 2023, causing her to have a ruptured fallopian tube and excessive bleeding. According to the Mayo Clinic, it is described as:
“An ectopic pregnancy most often occurs in a fallopian tube, which carries eggs from the ovaries to the uterus. This type of ectopic pregnancy is called a tubal pregnancy. Sometimes, an ectopic pregnancy occurs in other areas of the body, such as the ovary, abdominal cavity or the lower part of the uterus (cervix), which connects to the vagina.
An ectopic pregnancy can’t proceed normally. The fertilized egg can’t survive, and the growing tissue may cause life-threatening bleeding, if left untreated.”
This experience seems like it will be enough for anyone to step away from music completely, but in Florence’s darkest time it might have birthed one of the best albums in the band’s discography.
From the title track to the final track
From the title track “Everybody Scream” to the final track “And Love,” listeners hear that signature Victorian medieval sound accompanied by Florence’s profound voice carrying a thunderous echo. The album deals with much of the guilt, pain, and trauma that losing a child leaves with a person. One of the most lyrically potent and thought-provoking songs is “Perfume and Milk,” which specifically talks about the aftermath of Florence trying to find a way to continue her life after this ordeal. The lines:
And all shall be well
All shall be well
Miracles are often inconvenient
And a prayer is a spell
This line is a callback to a novel by Julian of Norwich, Revelation of the Divine Love, a story detailing visions that Julian sees of Christ at the hands of suffering and love through him. One can definitely understand how an ectopic pregnancy can feel the same as the immense suffering and the themes that are found in the book.
Another profound song, “Which Dance”
Another profound song, “Which Dance,” is contextualized through Florence Welch’s interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, where she responds to the lyrics:
Open my legs, lie down with death
We kiss, we sigh, we sweat
His blackberry mouth stains my nightgown
I pull him close
Wrap my legs around and it tastes like life
Welch explains:
“The closest I came to death was trying to make life, and you don’t get that without desire. There was a lot about desire and ‘where was this feeling going to lead me?’. It did feel really magical, I was really excited (…) to try and start a family. I had wrestled with it on ‘King’, I had wrestled with it in Dance Fever and it felt like this exciting moment. (…) It’s that sort of grief that that experience has taken from me.”
There is also a reference to Robert Frost’s 1923 poem
There is also a reference to Robert Frost’s 1923 poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, which details a near-death experience, specifically the lines:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
With Florence’s interpretation being:
A stranger came to my door
And I welcomed him in
My feet are bleeding
And I cannot stop
I have many, many miles
Yet to cross
She wears this pain as a badge of honor. It is reported that Welch, along with internal bleeding, also suffered a broken foot through this experience. In an interview with Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian, Welch details:
“Emotionally, I’m an absolute nightmare. Literally, will crumble,” she laughs. “But broken bone? Fine. Internal bleeding? Let’s go.”
There are so many strong tracks
There are so many strong tracks within this body of work, which brings me to “You Can Have It All.”
This is Florence Welch detailing mentally, emotionally, and physically the fact that women who are artists and performers cannot have all they want in this outwardly glamorous life.
The fame, the career, and the chance at motherhood, and the forced nature of a business where your performance, attitude, and will to persevere through whatever suffering you are going through behind the scenes is necessary not only to sell music, but to sell the fact that the artist is always happy and everything is always good.
She buries herself underneath this traumatic experience while feeling that her family and unborn child have been ripped away from her and the experience of motherhood lost.
Dug a hole in the garden and buried a scream
And from it grew a bright red tree
Shining with jagged leaves
And when the wind blows, you can hear it
Dug a hole in the garden and buried a scream
And from it grew a bright red tree
Shining with jagged leaves
And when the wind blows, you can hear it
Everybody Scream is an emotional ride
Everybody Scream is an emotional ride, to say the least. As it is said, mothers are the bearers of life. To see a person like Florence Welch bear the burden of losing a child in this traumatic fashion, but birthing an album that ties August’s agonizing pain together sonically and lyrically, is breathtaking to me.
Commercial Success, Critical Acclaim, and Legacy
November 10, 2025—Florence + the Machine’s highly anticipated new album, Everybody Scream, debuts at #1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart and #4 on the Billboard 200. Additionally, the album is #1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums, Top Current Album Sales, and Indie Store Album Sales charts, and #2 on the Vinyl Albums chart. Lead single “Everybody Scream” also hits #1 on the Mediabase AAA Radio chart.
Written and produced with a close-knit circle of collaborators including Mark Bowen of IDLES, Aaron Dessner, Mitski, Danny L. Harle, and Dave Bayley of Glass Animals, Florence Welch’s sixth album features the previously released title track, “One of the Greats,” and “Sympathy Magic.” Welch debuted “Sympathy Magic” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Everybody Scream is already receiving critical acclaim:
The Guardian: “Her extraordinary, excoriating new album, Everybody Scream…is as strange, uncompromising and brutal as she has ever been. It will be released on Halloween, and no wonder. It is full of witchcraft and fury.”
Rolling Stone: “Everybody Scream is a visceral and mystical reflection on life and loss, not to mention a showcase for Welch’s remarkable voice.”
Pitchfork: “If you’re a fan of the band’s arena-pop baroque, you’ll get what you came for: horizon-spanning anthems of resilience.”
Stereogum: “An incredibly fulfilling listen — moving, entrancing, and a downright optimal soundtrack for dancing naked under the moonlight.”
Consequence: “Florence Welch channels recovery, rage, and rebirth into Everybody Scream — Florence + The Machine’s most honest and haunting album yet.”
Florence will tour North America in 2026, with dates kicking off next April including stops at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center, two nights at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum, and more, following sold-out 2026 Europe and U.K. dates. Rachel Chinouriri, Sofia Isella, CMAT, and Mannequin Pussy will support on select dates.
Across five albums—Lungs (2009), Ceremonials (2011), How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015), High As Hope (2018), and Dance Fever (2022)—Florence Welch has become one of the most monumental artists of a generation. Known for her earth-shattering live show and singular, iconic voice, she has collaborated and shared stages with icons including The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift, and published a book of lyrics, poetry, and drawings, Useless Magic.
Everybody Scream stands not only as a commercial triumph, but as a deeply human document of loss, endurance, and transformation.