#16 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — Florence + the Machine
Everybody Scream by Florence + the Machine
In the immortal words of our Queen Bey, who run the world? Girls do, of course. And despite my best efforts to try and ignore the artist at #16, Florence Welch and her band The Machine have been in the ruling class for the better part of two decades. It took six albums, but I’m finally here to pay homage to one of the greats.
Florence + the Machine have been making music since 2007. Of the eight musicians in the band, four of them (Florence Welch – the primary songwriter of the band – on lead vocals, Isabella Summers on keyboards, Robert Ackroyd on lead guitar, and Tom Monger on harp) have been together for all 19 of those years. The other four (Cyrus Bayandor on bass, Aku Orraca-Tetteh on percussion, Dionne Douglas on violin, and Loren Humphrey on drums) joined the band in 2018.
The band released their debut album, Lungs, in 2009, which went to #1 in the UK and Poland, and #14 in the US, selling over 3 million copies globally on the strength of singles “Kiss With a Fist” and “Dog Days Are Over.” They were also given the British Album of the Year award that year at the Brit Awards. All worthy accolades. The band released four albums over the next 12 years, landing at #1 or 2 in the UK and within the top 10 each year in the US – amazing feats. And I still didn’t pay close attention.
In the time between their fifth album, Dance Fever, in 2022 and this latest in 2025, Welch made a high-profile guest appearance on what I would call the best song on Taylor Swift’s (#29 this year, and #4 in 2020) lackluster 2024 album Tortured Poets Department, “Florida!!!.” She even performed its anthemic, triple-exclamation-point worthy chorus on stage with Swift at Wembley Stadium during an October 2024 stop on the Eras Tour.1 Because I live with a couple of Swifties, this meant for a brief time Florence’s voice could be heard throughout my house.
One of the main drivers of The Bacon Review early on was to share music videos. As a child of the 80s, and a designer by trade, I have a deep affinity for the visual forms that music can take. And that is how this album, Everybody Scream, Florence’s sixth, found its way to the front of my playlists in 2025: through a video. I stumbled across the video for “One of the Greats” (featured above), and was enthralled. It features Florence, 39, in the back of an old whale of a car, white leather and polished wood finishes. She’s wearing wayfarers, a black velvet suit jacket over a white button-down, and holding an unlit cigarette, giving a strong Patti Smith vibe, as if she’s on her way home from the shoot for the cover of Smith’s 1975 album Horses. The car is moving forward, with remnants of a recent rain splashed on the windows, and streetlights moving slowly by, while Florence lip syncs to the lyrics. The song is over six minutes long, and the video is done all in one take, locked on Florence and her flowing red mane.
The song is a slow burn that builds, not to a towering crescendo like a lot of F+tM’s songs do, but to a mild cacophony that disintegrates into madness at the end. Welch performed the song once in the studio, with IDLES (#16 in 2024) guitarist Mark Bowen taking lead guitar, performing alongside her during that one take. The song also features guitar and production from Aaron Dessner (he of The National and Big Red Machine, who has been featured on the Top 31 so many times I should probably try running for president of the Aaron Dessner fanclub). The song won me over instantly – the entire package: the video, Florence, Bowen and Dessner.
The video itself was directed by Autumn de Wilde, whose work I’ve been loving for a long while (check out her video for “Once In My Life,” the Decemberists song for their #14 in 2018 album I’ll Be Your Girl). Unbeknownst to me, De Wilde has had a long partnership with F+tM, having directed five videos for the band from their previous two albums.2
That partnership carried into Everybody Scream, starting with a great little teaser called “Bury a Scream” that was released a couple months prior to the album release. Then came the title song, “Everybody Scream.” That, and “Buckle” both feature Top 31 regular Mitski (#9 in 2023, #18 in 2022, and #24 in 2016) on backing vocals. “Sympathy Magic” rounds out the videos de Wilde has made for this album, and goes so far as to feature Welch naked at the beginning of the video (meaning, it’s mildly NSFW).
Bowen and Dessner combine with Welch to take production credits for the entire album. So, what I like about the songs in the videos above stretches across the entire length of the album. “Drink Deep,” is particularly good, with Welch’s drawn out vibrato, evokes another powerful female voice: Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser, from This Mortal Coil’s cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren.” Fraser is one of many voices with whom you can call Welch’s ancestry. You’ll hear odes to Janis, Stevie, Tori, PJ, Fiona, and Sharon throughout.
Who doesn’t love a great and powerful female lead? Don’t let this album slip past you – it’s a swift kick in the gut mixed with the unsettling warmth of a house fire. I’m now a committed Florence + the Machine stan, and I can’t wait to hear what they do next.
1. Welch also sang drowned-out background harmonies on The Weeknd’s “Reflections Laughing,” from his 2025 album Hurry Up Tomorrow, which also featured rapper Travis Scott. It’s such a minimal appearance, it barely begs mentioning at all.↩
2. De Wilde directed “Big God” from 2018’s High as Hope, and “King,” “Heaven is Free,” “My Love,” and “Free from 2022’s Dance Fever. That last one, “Free,” is fun, starring Bill Nighy alongside Welch as her anxiety come to life.↩
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