Florence + The Machine - My Love (2022) [Hi-Res]

In the past few weeks, the Machine has been clanking back to life. Florence + The Machine have released the singles “King” and “Heaven Is Here,” both recorded with producer Jack Antonoff. When you get big new songs coming out in quick succession like that, then it’s not exactly a surprise when the album announcement arrives. And here it is: Later this spring, Florence + The Machine will release their new LP Dance Fever, the follow-up to 2018’s High As Hope.

Florence Welch wrote the songs from Dance Fever while in pandemic-induced isolation, missing the catharsis of mass gatherings. (If you’ve ever seen Florence live, then you know that the catharsis of mass gatherings is very important to her.) In March of 2020, as soon as she was able, Florence went to New York and recorded with Antonoff. She continued to tinker with some of the songs, including “My Love,” the new single that she’s released today.

In a press release, Florence says that “My Love” started off as a “sad little poem,” but it didn’t work as a dirge. Instead, Florence got help on the track from Dave Bayley, frontman of Glass Animals, the band that currently occupies the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Bayley suggested turning “My Love” into a dance track, and that’s what it’s become. Florence co-wrote “My Love” with Bayley and co-produced it with Antonoff and Bayley. The track uses the howling, swirling drama that comes naturally to Florence, and it applies it to a big, thumping disco-house beat. Those elements work together. On first listen, “My Love” sounds anthemic.

Like the last two singles, “My Love” has a video from director Autumn de Wilde, the former rock photographer who made the 2020 film Emma. The clip envisions Florence as a ’20s-style nightclub singer, wailing out the song in a room full of motionless, expressionless figures. It’s a slick, expressive piece of filmmaking. - Stereogum