After having teased its release with cryptic images and lyrics, Florence + the Machine have released their new song, “Mermaids.” Alongside other songs “King,” “My Love” and “Cassandra,” all have been added to the original Dance Fever album, which released last May, to create Dance Fever – Complete Edition. Produced and written by Florence Welch and Dave Bayley, “Mermaids” began production during the sessions for the original Dance Fever and was finished when Welch was recovering from a broken foot.
Listen to “Mermaids” below.
The song is a cautionary tale about mermaids, who get one night a year to dance on land like humans, but come to “sacrifice a human heart.” The night of the mermaids comes with “cheerful oblivion,” the experience associated with drink, drugs, dancing, and a desperate desire to love and be loved. The mermaids draw people in, smelling “like Britney Spears and coconuts” with their beauty and energy, so even when “the dancefloor is filling up with blood, but oh lord, you’ve never been so in love.” The song uses brass, percussion, and choir to spin a mythical sound– a sound that creates a whole world around the song, a world of intrigue and desires, and laced with metaphor.
Welch continues her growth into one of the most original songwriters and performers in the UK with the release of “Mermaids” and Dance Fever – Complete Edition.
Read our review of Florence + the Machine’s original Dance Fever album here.
Photo credit: Alyssa Fried.
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