Florence + The Machine has unleashed “Mermaids,” a haunting new tune, swimming with frontwoman Florence Welch’s spectral vocals and the group’s trademark gothic pop.
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The new single is another deep dive into the fairytale-like universe of the band’s last LP, Dance Fever, a masterful album that harbored hits both compelling and creepy. “Mermaids” is following suit.
And with your mermaid hair and your teeth so sharp / You crawled from the sea to break that sailor’s heart / You only get one night upon the shore / So dance like you’ve never danced before / And the dance floor is filling up with blood / But, oh, Lord, you’ve never been so in love, a verse from the song plays in between choruses crying, Cheerful oblivion.
For weeks, Welch has been teasing the track with several video posts on her Instagram, footage that presumedly belongs to a forthcoming music video.
Listen to the new single below.
Dance Fever was released in May 2022 and saw the band tour the world in support of the 14-track fantasy-tinged album. The Australia-New Zealand leg of the tour came to a close last month. A surprise 24-track live record, compiled from the band’s two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden last year, dropped last fall and gave fans a taste of the album on the road.
“For an album that was so much about performance, the possession of it, the love-hate relationship with life on the road. And the ensuing grief when I thought it may never happen again. To get out to perform these songs has been the most extraordinary experience,” Welch said in a statement. “The connection with the audience and the catharsis is at a level I have never experienced before.”
She continued, “Maybe it’s because we all missed it so much. But people are bringing so much of themselves to these shows, I wanted to have a memory of ‘Dance Fever’ live. As a testament to this time, and a full circle moment. For an album so much about the loss of live music. To have a recording of the return means so much to me.”
Aside from expanding the Dance Fever universe, Florence + The Machine also recently dropped a sinister cover of No Doubt’s mid-’90s classic, “Just A Girl,” for the Showtime series Yellowjackets.
Photo by Autumn de Wilde / Sacks & Co.
