Dance Fever
| Florence + the Machine
Dance Fever
Dance Fever is the fifth studio album by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine, released on 13 May 2022 by Polydor Records. Work on the album was originally scheduled for early 2020 in New York City; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, recording took place in London instead. Frontwoman Florence Welch has cited Iggy Pop as the biggest musical influence on the album which features a variety of styles, ranging from progressive pop to indie pop, disco, and industrial music. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
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.
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The Guardian
The singer spares no details on her confessional, pared-back fifth album with nods to Madonna and the Stones .
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Rolling Stone
Florence + the Machine’s ‘Dance Fever’ is an Ecstatic Prayer for Post-Pandemic Redemption.
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NME
the triumphant sound of a singer reborn.
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PopMatters
Creating their most conceptual, theatrical work, Florence + the Machine air out their lockdown grievances and ugly feelings by reminding us all to dance it out.
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The Arts Fuse
She can perform again, and her songs dramatize her triumph: Welch has surmounted pain and yearning and has attained ecstasy, salvation, survival.
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mxdwn Music
Overall, Florence + the Machine’s newest album, Dance Fever, is an impressive work that explores the feelings and struggles Florence Welch has faced as a young woman and her thoughts that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an excellent addition for any fan of their previous works.
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Spin
Band’s fifth album is louder, grander testament to the singer’s vocal ferocity.
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Sputnik Music
What really makes it stand out is the way it offers a continual sense of hope and vigor in the face of defeat and darkness. After all, what else would you expect from a Florence and the Machine album that was recorded during the COVID pandemic? Maybe we do need to dance it all out.
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Metro Weekly
Fresh out of isolation, Florence and the Machine makes a glorious and cinematic return with a new album.
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Paste Magazine
The U.K. band draw on everything from Springsteen to festival EDM on their diverse, captivating fifth album.
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Louder Than War
The festival queen Florence returns with an album of fierce and poignant songs inspired by plagues past and present.
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Spectrum Culture
Florence Welch’s pandemic album finds the artist looking inward even while she’s unable to suppress the compulsion to break free from isolation.
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Consequence
Florence Welch is at the height of her powers on fifth studio album.
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Redbrick Music
Dance Fever is frenzied, affecting, precise and euphoric. It is a love letter and an appeal to complex femininity, an ode to her previous work and a sublime listening experience. It is honest and raw and intricate. It is utterly brilliant.
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XS Noize
Dance Fever as a whole is a brilliant album, one that is sure to return Welch and her bandmates to the spotlight in a big way. A showcase of their evolution, it’s a collection that is both personal and powerful, addressing issues and expressing feelings so many can relate to, and that alone makes it a stand-out release of the year so far.
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DIY Magazine
A welcome shot of fairy-tale hedonism ripe for post-pandemic dancefloor indulgence.
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Riff Magazine
Florence and the Machine have produced one unique and memorable album after another, and Dance Fever does that again. It’s both thriving and progressive while continually drawing on imagery of Renaissance-style art and religious practices that preceded its release by centuries.
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The Musical Hype
Florence + The Machine makes a superb return with their compelling, consistent, and well-rounded fifth studio album, Dance Fever.
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The Line of Best Fit
Florence + the Machine shake up the formula on the joyous and personal Dance Fever.
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Hotpress
her songs are like children begging to be born. The stage calls to her, and we’re eternally grateful she answers every time.
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Belwood Music
There are a few fleeting flashes of brilliance, like the fusion of wild west instrumentation and Greek myth allegories on album highlight ‘Cassandra’, but they aren’t enough to get the record off the ground. There isn’t anything here I’d call outright bad by any measure, but Dance Fever feels so drained of colour and energy compared to previous releases that it struggles to earn your attention. It’s a record that, for the majority of its runtime, lacks the grand sweeping arrangements and triumphant singalong hooks we’ve come to expect, and musically offers new to fill the void left by their absence.
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Exclaim!
The album culminates with another anecdote and introspective track. On "Morning Elvis," Welch recalls her chaotic time partying in Memphis and mentions that she never got the chance to visit Graceland. But even so, she promises to still make it to her performance, ultimately finding liberation in music.
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Renowned for Sound
Dance Fever began as an album about Choreomania (hence the title) but ended with a depiction of chilling self-reflection. Welsh and the band created an honest, vital, and theatrical depiction of growing older. Its powerful uncertainty and realizations add to the majestic and spiritual nature of the album. With Dance Fever, Florence + The Machine keep getting better and better.
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Cryptic Rock
Dance Fever is, above all things, a window into the soul of its creator who is willing to delight in a simple yellow sprig, experience sobering grace in front of a crowd, and launch an artistic rebellion against a societal machine that wishes to control. With vulnerability, honesty, and authenticity, whether dancing, singing, or simply penning words on paper, Florence Welch reminds us that she is, always and forever, a woman—hear her roar!
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All Music Magazine
Raphaelite Brotherhood movement and their fascination with the medieval era and all things ‘before Raphael’) which the art work cements. Florence Welch is the epitome of the pre-Raphaelite painting style and the album cover could be straight from a John Everett Millais painting, although also very Art Nouveau feeling and reminiscent of an Alfons Mucha poster. This album follows on brilliantly from previous works. A musical masterpiece.
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Impact
Inspired by the very real social phenomenon of Choreomania – a ‘dancing plague’ which beset medieval Europe, and caused its victims to dance themselves to injury or death – Florence + the Machine’s fifth album, ‘Dance Fever’, gives us the band’s most mature sound to date, and Florence Welch’s most personal reflection.
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Our Culture
On Dance Fever, Welch devotes all of her effort to the pursuit of holding onto it, extracting the real from the mythical.
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Range
Dance Fever has so many of the elements that have always put Welch in a class of her own. Her voice sounds just as incredible as its always been, a powerhouse warble that soars through every song. The songs are written in her signature witchy tone, referencing repeated themes of darkness, sorrow, religion, and love. It’s quite a bit of familiarity after five albums, but if you’re craving Welch’s signature sound, Dance Fever delivers.
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The Upcoming
Dance Fever is Florence and the Machine at their very best: ambitious, mythical and fuelled by Welch’s singular vocal style. Now 15 years into their career, it’s hard to argue that they’ve lost any of the spark that saw their rise to pop-rock icons.
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Financial Times
Florence + the Machine’s new album Dance Fever is a winner.
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Love London Love Culture
Dance Fever is an album that is bursting with energy and feeling. With tracks such as ‘Choreomania’ and ‘ ‘Dream Girl Evil’ – I loved the change of pace on each song that keeps you on your toes to make for an enjoyable experience. Overall, it is a welcome return for Florence + the Machine – a poetic and insightful listen from start to finish.
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Spill Magazine
Dance Fever feels unmistakably like a Florence Welch record, but after five outings with significant space between releases, it does feel odd that all of Florence + The Machine’s music blurs from record to record. There is no denying that Welch’s voice and songwriting instincts are captivating at base level but there is nothing distinct here that begs for multiple listens. Those that are familiar with her past body of work will likely feel the exact same way about Dance Fever as they have with any other Florence + The Machine album prior – lots to adore but very little to remember.
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Stereoboard
Although it’s not the feelgood album of the summer, ‘Dance Fever’ is a powerful body of work that becomes more rewarding with every listen. Revealing fresh flavours and insights throughout songs that question whether the personal cost of creativity is too much to bear, it’s a wonderfully layered record on every front that, much like its chief songwriter, exudes a complexity that will fascinate, intrigue and captivate for a long time to come.
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The Needle Drop
Some of Florence's best songs and performances yet.
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Brig Newspaper
‘Dance Fever’ is the Heaven we wanted .
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Vinyl Chapters
There is an entire spectrum to Florence across the album. From the pensive to the possessed. From frustrated to free. A seething rage underlies tracks like Girls Against God, as Welch expresses the feelings of so many during lockdown; yet gentle melodies such as Morning Elvis convey the redemption and salvation Welch finds in music, performance, and her audience. It’s an album that holds so much raw emotion but feels as if it’s depositing small gems of wisdom.
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Northern Transmissions
‘Dance Fever’ is reflective of now; a time to celebrate overcoming shared trauma after a period of uncertainty and reflection. Scars and all.
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musicOMH
Florence Welch’s fifth album is a startling return, full of all the elements which made us sit up and take notice of her in the first place.
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Total Ntertainment
The album has a narrative that is expertly showcased, uses horror tropes I’ve not heard used in music.
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Music Existence
In its entirety seeps Florence’s desire which ultimately guides a rumination on memory, loss, rage, desire, and confliction. Even in its chaotic moments, there is a deep sense of control, as she reclaims her power within a world that stripped away any sense of control and normalcy. Through desperation and plenty of time to ponder it all, a beautiful work of art that Florence herself describes as “a fairytale in 14 songs” emerged. Dance Fever is an album that finds Florence at the peak of her powers, of self actualization, and playing with her persona and the ideas of identity and humanity. Each song resembles a spark of hope she attempts to ignite, and by the end of the album, you realize you have been fully engulfed in her flame.
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Staged Haze
It’s a haunting, energetic and beautiful album that speaks to the societal pressure that women find themselves under, how that pressure can cause someone to crack with anxiety, and yes, how dancing can help with all of that.
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Evening Standard
Hesitant and uncertain, but always absorbing.
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The Independent
Wonderful wildness from the most thrilling pop star of her generation.
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The Irish Times
The quieter moments are the most satisfying on Welch’s fifth album.
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It's All Dead
But if High as Hope was Florence at her most demure, an ode to where we have been, then Dance Fever is an ode to where we are going. Nowhere but up.
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Gigwise
Starting spinning and ending with applause, Dance Fever whips you into hysteria and then relieves you from it. Bringing pieces of all the old Florence eras into one, from the rockier sounds of Lungs to the storytelling of How Big How Blue How Beautiful and the softness of High As Hope, the grandeur of the album’s aesthetic world gilds in gold 14 tracks of big feelings that threaten to burst free. Put perfectly by Florence, this is "grand self-mythology", spinning round magic and character until she has to land on herself.
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The Weekly Coos
Dance Fever is a fantastic record that delivers on Florence + the Machine’s strengths on both ends and keeps us in a constant state of contemplative dance. It does something unique with its sonic concept that keeps you invested; the complexities of the production offer vibrancy that boasts the vibes that got injected into you by it. I left a memorable imprint in my ears, especially “My Love.” There is enough to take away and love, especially when you want to get up and dance alone in your room.
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Maxazine
With a little help from producers Jack Antonoff (Taylor Swift, Lana del Rey, Lorde, Bleaches, FUN.) and Dave Bayley (Glass Animals), Florence + The Machine have delivered another strong album. Not all songs will be equally highly regarded, but with singles such as “My Love”, “King” and “Free” the British band has once again delivered a beautiful gift. Now waiting for Florence to get back on stage and leave no corner undanced in her bare feet.
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QRO Magazine
Florence & The Machine’s ability to bring the classical, whether medieval or orchestral, into modern hits has been something to behold. And it continues as we catch this Dance Fever.
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Ghost Cult Magazine
Where some artists would have chosen to go bigger and bigger, ultimately jumping the shark. Florence & The Machine decide to go against the herd with Dance Fever weaving an intimate, personal album delving deep into Welch’s life. The result is phenomenal, after listening through Dance Fever, it feels almost as if you have ventured forth on a journey of self-discovery. It is from this album that illustrates how much of a special group they are. The skies are the limits for Florence & The Machine.
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The New Statesman
This is an immersive, cathartic new album of stadium-filling songs.
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AllMusic
While this effort may not be Welch's surprise transformation into a full-on pop diva, Dance Fever is a generous offering to the goddesses of dance and restorative energy.
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Clash Magazine
In the face of love, bombs are thrown and Elvis asked for forgiveness at the end of ‘Dance Fever’. Balancing a dramatic soundtrack with heartfelt emotion, Florence + the Machine invite you into their fever dream. A dance party to release your demons to, they cast yet another lyrically beautiful and musically capitulating spell.
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About the Noise
‘Dance Fever’ is a glorious collection of songs whether you’re an existing fan or fairly new to the material of Florence + The Machine. This is truly the soundtrack to your summer, with songs catering to every mood and feeling.
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The Edge
Dance Fever gives us the best of Florence + The Machine occasionally, but too often it struggles to find its place past being another 'High As Hope' look-a-like.
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247otb
So as my first listen to a Florence and The Machine album, I was quite impressed. I think there were some great songs on this album and there’s no denying it. I think Florence has a one-of-a-kind vocal delivery and the instrumentation behind her compliments it. It’s a solid album.
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The Arts Desk
It’s all a bit proggy, at times a bit folky, very atmospheric and quintessentially English in many ways.
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Mystic Sons
While it doesn't have too many of the big, festival anthems as some of their predecessors, 'Dance Fever' still continues the warm and embracing sound Florence + The Machine have always been able to conjure. A bright and vivid collection, brimming with shimmering textures, they are showing us no signs of slowing down any time soon.
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Rock 'N' Load
Dance Fever is an album that sees Florence at the peak of her powers, coming into a fully realised self-knowledge, poking sly fun at her own self-created persona, playing with ideas of identity, masculine and feminine, redemptive, celebratory, stepping fully into her place in the iconic pantheon.
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Flood Magazine
The beats on Florence Welch’s fifth album are more physical than ever, and the lyrics are darkly comic—all in service to that thrilling feeling of dancing on the edge of a knife.
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