Florence + the Machine’s much lauded new album Dance Fever debuts at #1 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, #2 on Top Album Sales and #7 on the Billboard 200—her fourth consecutive album in the top ten. In addition, the album debuts at #1 in the U.K., the band’s fourth LP to reach the top spot.
Last week, Florence Welch shared the deluxe version of Dance Fever featuring a cover of The Stooges’ “Search And Destroy” and acoustic versions of four album tracks—“Cassandra,” “Free,” “Morning Elvis,” and “My Love.” Listen here.
The highly anticipated original version features acclaimed tracks “My Love,” “Free,” “King” and “Heaven is Here,” all of which arrived alongside videos from acclaimed director Autumn De Wilde.
Dance Fever continues to receive critical praise:
“Dance Fever is a collection of haunting rock songs that are frothing for release…”—The New York Times
“Over the past decade, Welch has become one of the most assured live performers in music. Her sets feel religious, filled with pop anthems that sound as imposing as age-old hymns, which she sings with her equally imposing voice while sprinting across the stage. That makes Dance Fever an apt name for her new album; that’s what her music, at its best, inspires to do.”—Vulture
“In an age that favors—often demands—the constant reinvention of its pop stars, there is a reassuring familiarity to Florence Welch…This wry, gently self-mocking sense of humor runs through Dance Fever, which sees Welch return to the euphoric, stadium-sized anthems that defined her earlier career.”—Vogue
“On the band’s fifth album, she’s still chasing her own heroically errant muse down whichever mossy, forked path it might take her...Dance Fever may be Welch’s most ecstatically extra work yet...No matter what raw deal the world gives her, this is not an artist who will be settling for less.”—Rolling Stone
“Florence Welch’s pandemic album turns her intensity inward, interrogating her relationship to performance and public image. These are her most personal lyrics, and among her most poignant.”—Pitchfork
“She’s long-exhumed the depths of her emotions through the power of booming, bewitching vocals and life-affirming choreography. And that’s no different on Dance Fever, an explosive expression of unity in the face of strife and an exuberant expression of hope.”—Consequence
“...some of the most captivating [songs] Florence The Machine have made in years, and exist as a hellish rebuke against stillness.”—Paste
Florence recently appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”—watch her perform “My Love” and “King” and chat with Fallon here, as well as performing on the Billboard Music Awards—watch here.
Following two wildly acclaimed, very intimate shows in New York and L.A. ahead of the album, Florence will tour the U.S. later this year. Today, she confirms second shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in addition to previously announced stops in Chicago, Boston, Austin and many more. Arlo Parks, Sam Fender, King Princess, Yves Tumor, Japanese Breakfast and Wet Leg will join as support on select dates and one dollar from every ticket sold will benefit Choose Love to aid refugees worldwide. Tickets are on sale now, see full routing below and visit florenceandthemachine.net for more information.
Dance Fever was recorded in London over the course of the pandemic in anticipation of the world’s reopening. It conjures up what Florence missed most in the midst of lockdown—clubs, dancing at festivals, being in the whirl of movement and togetherness—and the hope of reunions to come.
The image and concept of choreomania—a Renaissance phenomenon in which groups of people danced wildly to the point of exhaustion, collapse and death—became a focal point of inspiration. Forced off the road for the first time in more than a decade, dance offered Florence propulsion, energy and a way of looking at music more choreographically.
Starting, as ever, armed with a notebook of poems and ideas, Florence had just arrived to New York in March 2020 to begin recording when Covid-19 forced a retreat to London. Holed up at home, the songs she had begun started to transform.
Dance Fever is an album that sees Florence at the peak of her powers, coming into a fully realized self-knowledge, poking sly fun at her own self-created persona, playing with ideas of identity, masculinity and femininity, redemption and celebration.
Dance Fever was produced by Florence, Jack Antonoff and Dave Bayley of Glass Animals.
