On Friday, Oct. 31, English rock band Florence + The Machine released their sixth studio album, Everybody Scream, a well-titled album for its Halloween release date. With gothic instrumentals and deep indie rock roots, Everybody Scream proves to be a powerful and cathartic album throughout its 12 tracks.
Florence + The Machine formed as a band in 2007, stemming from a teenage passion project from lead vocalist Florence Welch and guitarist Isabella Summers. The rest of the band is made up of guitarist Robert Ackroyd, drummer Christopher Lloyd Hayden, and harpist Tom Monger. The band first rose to the spotlight after releasing their debut album Lungs in 2009, earning a number two ranking on the UK Albums Chart. Lungs established the band’s earmark dramatic production and indie rock tone that the band has yet to stray from 16 years later.
During the band’s European Tour, Welch experienced an ectopic pregnancy that pushed her to be hospitalized and undergo emergency surgery, which saved her life. During this transformative experience, Welch recently revealed in an interview with The Guardian that she felt as if she “had stepped through this door, and it was just full of women screaming.” This realization was the inspiration for the band’s newest album’s title Everybody Scream and many of the album’s lyrical themes about trauma and resilience. These concepts are thoughtfully approached with passion and touching accounts that add a jaw-dropping quality to the album.
Welch seems to discover new parts of herself on Everybody Scream, challenging double standards for women within the music industry and taking listeners alongside her as she delves into past traumas and spiritual experiences. The band released the album’s title track, “Everybody Scream,” as the lead single in August 2025. The song starts with eerie background vocals that build and harmonize, establishing the album’s horror undertone from the very first seconds of the album’s leading track.
At around 50 seconds, the band introduces screams to the song, adding an on-the-nose reference to the song’s title. Welch sings of the freedom she feels when she performs in front of fans, “But look at me run myself ragged, blood on the stage, but how can I leave you when you’re screaming my name?” Welch sings during the song’s chorus about how she pushes herself to physical exhaustion while performing, but feels she cannot stop because of the crowd’s encouragement. The song’s spooky and dramatic production comes to a high-pitched crescendo towards the end of the song as Welch sings of “spells,” “witchcraft,” and “madness,” embracing her internal spiritual side.
“Witch Dance,” the third track off the album, relies on theatrical production and powerful lyricism to make the song sound like a classic Florence + The Machine hit. Throughout the song’s lyrics, Welch describes having a romantic relationship with death as an extended metaphor for her near-death ectopic pregnancy experience.
The song’s gasping, building lyrics, with undertones of dramatic anger, sound like a track straight off the band’s beloved debut album Lungs. The lyrics creep and crawl as Welch passionately sings, “Show me the way this feeling leads, the ache, the kick, the need,” during the song’s chorus. With the lyrics’ hidden meaning, this song feels equally ominous and empowering and is easily one of the most vulnerable songs on the album due to its references to Welch’s traumatic surgery experience.
“Sympathy Magic,” the album’s fourth track, has a tone of resilience that shines throughout the song’s production and lyrics. Starting slower than many of the other tracks on Everybody Scream, “Sympathy Magic” builds into a moving song about Welch’s struggles with the vulnerability of fame. In a feverish tone, Welch sings, “Crouched in a ball gown, anxious and ashamed, the vague humiliations of fame.”
Referencing her struggles with being in the spotlight, Welch opens up to fans and pushes herself to be vulnerable in her lyrics, making the song feel emotionally raw. “Sympathy Magic” has a dark and celestial charm that will easily capture fall music lovers’ hearts. Welch embraces her trauma and describes her songwriting and singing as “sympathy magic” in yet another clever metaphor that flaunts her talented lyricism.
The theme of “witchy feminism” is prominent throughout the album, but truly takes off on track eight, “Music by Men,” as Welch leans into ironic lyricism to describe how falling in love made her reflect on herself. With a softer tone than the rest of the songs on the album, “Music by Men’s” folksy shift stands out.
The track was produced by Aaron Dressner, who has previously worked with Taylor Swift on albums such as folklore, which, similar to Everybody Scream, is very focused on storytelling through lyrics that are complemented rather than overpowered by production. “If it required practice and dedication, I just got bored. We discussed something called compromise, a brand new concept that I never tried.” Welch, throughout the song, describes how she finds it easy to fall in love but difficult to stay in it and face self-growth. With a strong and ironic ending, this song is irresistible despite its differentiation in tone compared to the other tracks on the album.
The lyricism throughout Everybody Scream feels like a fairytale. Co-producer Aaron and Welch’s combined talents crafted a powerful, theatrical, and emotionally compelling album that draws on listeners’ heartstrings but also finds a way to be inspiring despite the song’s lyrics exploring some of the most traumatic moments of Welch’s life.
The album unpacks the enigmatic relationship between Welch and her fans and is breathtaking, iconic, and full of witchcraft imagery fit for countless October playlists to come. Glittering with 70s charm and housing a haunting quality infused into the song’s harmonies and melodies, Everybody Scream is the perfect fall album focusing on themes of fame, vulnerability, and resilience, earning four and a half out of five feathers.
