Florence and the Machine is back with another new single, following the release of the title track from her upcoming album Everybody Scream. The new song is titled “One Of The Greats” and was written and produced by Florence Welch along with a group of collaborators including Aaron Dessner, Mitski and Mark Bowen of IDLES, who appears in the “Everybody Scream” music video. Welch explains the process of creating this song by saying, “Me and Bowen from IDLES wrote it in one take. He played the guitar and I just sang it straight from the page. We meant to re-record it but the first take just had this amazing energy. Then Aaron Dessner helped us take it to a truly transcendent place. I wanted it to feel like you were disintegrating into nothing at the end. Which is sometimes what the creative process feels to me. Death and resurrection over and over.”

Similarly to the song “Everybody Scream”, the new song, “One Of The Greats”, also comes with a music video, which was directed by Autumn de Wilde. The video is a visualizer that features Welch in the back of a car, wearing a suit, singing the song, while twirling a cigar around in her fingers. She appears to be dressed as the stereotypical powerful man, which makes sense with lyrics in the song such as “It’s funny how men don’t find power very sexy. So this one’s for the ladies.” It’s a simple, yet impactful visual. 

Lyrically, the song seems to center around gender inequality, how women in the industry are viewed differently. The message of the song is made most clear through the bridge of the song. About the concept of “One Of The Greats”, Welch states, “Early in my career, I was consistently ridiculed and derided for the bigness of my expression. I was thrust into the spotlight but also told again and again I didn’t deserve it, or that because it wasn’t to their taste it wasn’t good. So maybe this is a 15-year outpouring of frustration. But also, a lot of the lines I just left in because I thought they were funny.”

The new song has been receiving strong praise from outlets, with Stereogum deeming it  “a grand, gothic, synth-powered anthem with the kind of chorus a whole arena could easily pick up on,” and The New York Times calling Welch “Pop’s glorious enchantress”. Her 6th album, Everybody Scream, featuring the songs “Everybody Scream”, “One Of The Greats” and more is out on Halloween of this year.

Photo credit: Sharon Alagna