Well, that surely came with a quickness. After surprising fans with an impending return, Florence + The Machine took very little time to actually do so.
Listen to Audacy's Women of Alt now, for a collection of songs from some of the most iconic women in the history of Alternative music
Delivered via snail mail to a select few was an ornate pink playing card with Florence’s image on the front, right above the word “King.” The card, which has also found a home on the band’s updated website, arrived to Florence fans in a pink envelope, embossed with “Florence + The Machine: Chapter 1.”
Then less than one week later, “King” arrived, alongside a video by acclaimed director Autumn de Wilde. As per the song’s official press release “‘King’ is a meditation on womanhood, family, femininity and the subverting of expectations in which Florence Welch declares: ‘I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king.’"
As Florence herself went on to say, “As an artist, I never actually thought about my gender that much,” she noted in the announcement. “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 modeled 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 last we heard from Florence Welch and Co. was 2018, when they released High As Hope. Not counting their one off track released in 2020, “Light Of Love”, and their 2021 contribution to Disney’s Cruella with “Call Me Cruella.”
Well that is until today… Watch and listen to Florence + The Machine's “King” below.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram