FLORENCE + THE MACHINE: Everybody Scream (Polydor)
Verdict: Gothic grandeur
London rock group The Last Dinner Party missed a trick when they released their spooky second album, From The Pyre, two weeks ago, instead of waiting until Halloween.
With today’s arrival of her gothic sixth album, Everybody Scream, Florence Welch — who performs as Florence + The Machine — has got her timing spot-on.
With its autumnal mood, tales of spells and sorcerers, and the backing of a medieval ‘witch choir’, it’s a perfect Halloween collection.
Welch, 39, says she researched Renaissance folk literature in a London library while writing these songs; and she lists Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein among her other touchstones.
The nightmares kick in from the moment the album opens with its title track. A Muse-like stomp that should work brilliantly on next year’s arena tour, it finds Florence running herself ragged, with ‘blood on the stage… the witchcraft, the medicine, the spells and the injections’.
By the second song, One Of The Greats, she’s dealing with reincarnation: ‘I crawled up from under the earth, broken nails and coughing dirt, spitting out my songs so you could sing along.’
Witchy woman: Florence Welch’s new album, Everybody Scream, is powerful and personal
So far, so witchy-woo. But this isn’t just a case of Welch doing the Monster Mash. As one of pop’s most dramatic performers, she has often hidden behind a theatrical persona without revealing too much of herself. That’s not the case here, though, as she examines feminism, mortality and the gaps between our public faces and private lives.
Recent events have played a part in forging an album as powerful as it is personal. In August 2023, Welch needed life-saving surgery after suffering a miscarriage during an ectopic pregnancy, and she says her recovery took her down a path of mysticism and folk-horror. There are no direct references to her harrowing experiences, but there is a heart-wrenching rawness to her voice as she moves between a folky whisper and an anguished howl.
Inspired by the enthusiastic reception she received when she guested with the perfectionist Taylor Swift on the last UK show of the Eras tour at Wembley Stadium last year, Welch took her time making Everybody Scream, meticulously co-producing the record with a diverse range of collaborators — including The National’s Aaron Dessner, singer-songwriter Mitski Miyawaki and Bristol punk guitarist Mark Bowen — all of whom added something different.
In One Of The Greats, she harks back to the indie-rock guitars of her BRIT-winning debut album, Lungs. Kraken, about a giant, squid-like sea monster, would have sat comfortably on 2011’s baroque Ceremonials. You Can Have It All — with its crashing drums, strings and woodwind — put me in mind of her symphonic 2024 Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.
Black magic women: Florence with her ‘witch choir’ on the Graham Norton Show
Gothic glamour: Welch researched Renaissance folk literature for Everybody Scream
Some of the most revealing moments are the most stripped-down. ‘Now I am changing, becoming something else,’ she sings as she addresses ageing on Perfume And Milk, a throwback to the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter boom of the 1970s.
Another acoustic song, Buckle, finds her alone in a post-gig dressing room, questioning her desire to keep making music. ‘I should be over this, I’m much too old for this,’ she admits. But like her pal Taylor, she finds it hard to walk away from the life of a showgirl.
It’s a theme she returns to, albeit with tongue in cheek, on The Old Religion. ‘It’s your troubled hero, back for season six,’ she tells us. ‘When it’s at its darkest, it’s my favourite bit.’
In keeping with its Halloween release, there’s certainly darkness here — but also a sense that Welch is lowering her guard. There’s a lot to digest, but it’s a striking return.
Florence + The Machine start a UK tour on February 6, 2026, at SSE Arena, Belfast (ticketmaster.co.uk).
CAT BURNS: How To Be Human (Sony)
Verdict: Celebrity Traitor bares her soul
She has been cleverly fibbing her way through BBC1’s The Celebrity Traitors, but Cat Burns lays her cards more honestly on the table with this second album.
The former BRIT School student’s story-songs, informed by her first serious relationship breakup and the death of her grandad, are candid and sincere, even though a series of voice-notes, some of them tearful, disrupt the flow.
‘Gonna take some time, you’ll be alright,’ she reassures herself on Can Time Move Faster?, while All This Love finds her vowing to be more open and live life to the fullest in honour of her grandad. ‘So I’ve been going out more, I’ve been seeing friends on the weekends,’ she sings. ‘Don’t mind being vulnerable, and maybe that’s the gift in all of this.’
Cool Cat: BRIT school graduate Burns has been raising her profile on the BBC, in The Celebrity Traitors – and now her new album could make her a household name
The Londoner’s talent lies in combining her heartache with breezy folk-pop and euphoric dance music.
There’s acoustic strumming on I Hope It’s Me, lush strings on Lavender, and club-friendly beats on Girls!, an ode to sapphic love. There’s even, on When I’m With You, the seemingly obligatory country song.
Boosted by her TV fame, these accessible tunes could make her a household name.
Cat Burns starts a UK tour on November 19 at Glasgow Academy (ticketmaster.co.uk).
BEST OF THE NEW RELEASES…
ROCK & POP
THE CHARLATANS: We Are Love (BMG)
Back with their first album in eight years, The Charlatans won’t rock the Richter Scale quite like Oasis (who they supported at Knebworth in 1996), but this is an assured return, despite a reliance on familiar ‘Madchester’ and Britpop riffs. Now Everything, a Pet Sounds-style ballad, is a highlight. ‘They’ll be playing our song on the moon,’ sings Tim Burgess on Deeper And Deeper. That’s pushing it, but it’s a timely reminder of their credentials.
ADRIAN THRILLS
CLASSICAL
BLISS: Miracle In The Gorbals (Chandos)
Sir Arthur Bliss’s score for the ballet Miracle In The Gorbals played an important role in the early years of the Royal Ballet.
Only once has it been recorded complete; and this latest version under Michael Seal’s baton sets a new standard — the playing of the BBC Philharmonic is beyond praise.
Bliss’s music is attractive and although the ending is violent, with a Christ-like stranger (originally Robert Helpmann) being killed, that denouement lasts only four minutes.
An 80-minute disc also includes the first full performance of the Metamorphic Variations which Bliss dedicated to a friend, the painter George Dannatt, and his wife Ann.
Rather than a single theme, Bliss states three melodic strands (‘elements’ as he calls them) and weaves a baker’s dozen of variants from those. The sound quality is superb.
GLUCK: Opera Arias (Signum Classics)
The Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg is in her late 50s but still commands a lovely tone and a formidable technique.
She tackles ten scenes from operas by Gluck, including two ‘first recordings’, and it is a shame that she omits the most famous of all Gluck arias, Orpheus’s ‘Che faro’.
There would have been room for it, especially if the Dance of the Blessed Spirits, nicely played by The Mozartists under Ian Page, had been cut; but ‘Che puro ciel’ is here.
In the very first scene, ‘Resta, o cara’ from Il Trionfo Di Clelia, Hallenberg displays the two extremes of her skill, with lovely legato lines and dramatic outbursts with trills.
Another scene for the same character Orazio, originally sung by the castrato Giovanni Manzuoli, is included; and several other arias will be pounced on by opera lovers.
TULLY POTTER
