Everybody Scream - music video analysis

Everybody Scream - what a video! In our almost ritualistic fashion, here’s our interpretation of the video for your perusal, as we try to unpick some of the creative processes and analyse deeper beyond what are simply stunning visuals and colours. Feel free to comment your own thoughts too!

The video begins with Florence wandering a barren land alone. It’s vast, scary, daunting and very raw. This symbolises her day-to-day life outside of her career. There’s a well-trodden path. Perhaps this symbolises the ‘path of life’; one walked many times, although somehow it still feels aimless. In her bold red dress, Florence stands out against the green landscape. In the tension between the pull of being a performer and the pull of wanting to live a quiet life out of the public eye, Florence feels alone, strange, and a lack of belonging in the world.

The shot cuts to Florence standing in a room, opulent and structured. She’s waving her arms; conducting. She’s at home here. It appears she is practising - preparing for a show. In contrast, the red dress is something that adds to the performance in this context, rather than something that makes her stand out. It highlights the duality of her image in day-to-day life, and as a performer on stage.

Florence is back to navigating the vast landscape alone. A man rides a horse in the distance along the same track Florence is following. Perhaps this is a symbolism for a multitude of things: a patriarchy, carving out a life for a woman who feels she does not conform yet is obliged to follow; a representation of always feeling behind when others charge ahead (she is on foot, after all). The man sits straddling the horse in the wrong direction, adding to the feeling of unease and wrongness of the dynamic. Perhaps the person carving out Florence’s life is doing so under the illusion that they know what is best for her future, but in fact hypocritically, they cannot even face it themselves.

Suddenly, Florence unleashes her support: a coven of witches - her songs, artistry, performance - that continues to guide her and give her newfound power beyond what she is able to reach in the day-to-day. They cast spells of illusion and influence. Her expression turns from one of unease to confidence, and her stride becomes such too: she is taking back power, using her artistry. It’s unhinged, feral, untamed, but that’s exactly what lends her the upper hand. The authority strikes a match and immediately extinguishes it. Again, this can be interpreted in many ways. Fire and ignition can signify the start of a spell. The fact it is blown out immediately could highlight the ways people in her life attempt to blow out the flame in her artistry, thus removing her power. It could also signify loss of something she almost had - a relationship, a project, or anything else she desires but feels out of reach. 

The next shot shows burning candles. Florence has taken control in a room (the stage) where she feels most powerful. Here, she has the authority. The candles are lit and the fire-fuelled spell she is casting over her audience is very much in full flow. They are possessed by her energy as she and her songs command the audience to move, scream, shake. Note their positions - Florence and her coven are all mounted on some sort of stage, and everyone else is subordinate to this. Her power is visceral - running her hands from legs to her head to embody the way her energy flows in performance towards her mouth (singing) and out into the venue.

The man who was riding the horse is also here, and he does not look impressed. He is yet to be taken by the spell; the patriarch resisting the pull of her influence, always present and attempting to bring Florence back down to earth in a place where performance allows her to fly. She physically commands him, pushing him down and mounting him, exerting her femininity to remove his power. In her mouth, she holds purple pansies; associated with reflection, thought, and admiration. She showers these on him from her mouth. Metaphorically speaking, she is singing songs that spill from her mouth to command admiration from those who might otherwise not do so.

The scene cuts outdoors again into the vast landscape - a symbolism of the real world away from her career. A new stage is set here. The tone shifts - Florence is no longer in power. She is isolated. She attempts to use what she has learnt on stage but it does not work. Instead, her creativity and art act as a restraint, suffocating her. What had previously been at her side in aid - her art - in fact has damaged (see Florence cutting her foot on stage, breaking her foot twice during performances, sacrificing relationships, and previously self-destructing through partying and substances).

Florence has often talked of her art as a double-edged sword. On one hand it is a space for her to become someone she otherwise could not; to transcend her being. She is larger than life on stage, mythical, and becomes someone sometimes she cannot even recognise within her ferocious performances. But on the stage of life, this very creativity holds her back, reiterating the tension that she explored on ‘Dance Fever’ of being torn between living in aspiration of what women are told they should want (see ‘King’, ‘Dream Girl Evil’), and living as a performer where life often is on pause. This video underscores that dichotomy: her art offers her power, command and freedom on one hand, but suffocates on the other.

And those are our thoughts! What do you think? Let us know on our social channels or in the comments.

FAN ANALYSES

“Autumn loves to put Florence in red (see the Free music video). I see parallels to the classic Kate Bush music video for Wuthering Heights. Also, the fan event “The most Wuthering Heights day ever” has been around for a while, where Kate Bush fans gather in parks while wearing dreamy red dresses and dance to the song.” — Julia Dickinson

“My first impression was the striking contrast between the lush green landscape and the deep crimson of the dress and heels. The red immediately evokes layered symbolism: echoes of The Scarlet Letter, where red signifies both shame and defiance, and The Handmaid’s Tale, where it represents fertility, control, and the blood of conception. In religious art, a red dress often stands for sacrifice, martyrdom, and the blood of Christ. Together, the imagery suggests a powerful tension; between oppression and resilience, between being marked and choosing to wear the mark as a form of strength. Put together, the imagery to me suggests a she’s standing apart from her environment, cloaked in sacrifice, power, and the burden of expectation. The crimson makes her impossible to ignore, she’s either being marked (by society/religion) or she’s claiming that mark as her own.” — Kate OBrien

“Red in witchcraft often symbolizes passion, strength, lust, action, and new beginnings as well.” — Markie Spears Hebert

“There’s also a moment where she pulls a man to the stage, throws him down, and shoves her heel down his throat. It’s a powerful symbol of establishing her dominance over what patriarchy wants and says she should be” — Alanna Seymore

“The horse at the start of the music video seems to mirror Macbeth's arrival at the start of the play and the relation between man on the horse in the music video and Florence seems to mirror Macbeth and lady Macbeth. The witches are also interesting in Florence's music video they seem to be causing mania (much like the plot of Macbeth) and similarly nearer the end of the music video cause mania around Florence. (Lady Macbeth goes crazy at the end of the play).” — @izzywiz.jpg

“I think its worth looking to primary sources of historic witchcraft, of Old England, and Early Modern English architecture and fashion, which dominates this video. The shooting location is a famous English house of Royalists that was besieged by Cromwellian Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War - while i doubt that was a conscious choice, it is worthwhile to note that the Royalists are associated more with kingship, divine right, romanticism and "the old ways" of feudalism. The Cromwellians were Puritans, Protestants, democratic and viscously modern, and loved killing witches. This is the house - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wythenshawe_Hall Meanwhile, the outdoors are on the Pennines, well known for their treasury of folklore, of boggarts and witches and ghosts. The two locations are also both Northern English locations, swinging away from London, New York and LA that we saw in the preceding albums - a move to the high moors of the North.” — @_ciotog

My Love - Music Video Analysis

This analysis piece comes after the epic release of Florence + the Machine’s second teaser single ‘Heaven Is Here’, followed closely by the lead single ‘My Love’.

For some context, ‘My Love’ is a song about writer’s block that Florence was experiencing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then how the pandemic itself forced Florence into a state of isolation from both her music in her professional life, and from seeing her loved one in her personal life. This is reflected through Autumn De Wilde’s masterpiece music video, detailed below.

The video begins in a pre-pandemic scenario, with a still but intense few seconds of Florence breathing. This is a theme that runs through all of the videos so far. This may be used to symbolise intimacy and vulnerability, as well as isolation and aloneness, all of which are concepts that COVID-19 amplified in 2020.

Florence appears fearful, with back to her audience, almost as if she does not want to perform. She contorts her hands as if controlled by string; as if she is a puppet to the musical world. This reiterates the line from ‘King’ “dragged me by my hair and back on with the show”. Florence realises that she doesn’t have a choice - the show must go on. Notice that when Florence turns to face the audience, her composure and persona completely changes. Suddenly, her face is one of confidence, standing elegantly and commanding the stage. This scene may be to reflect that behind closed doors, just as highlighted in ‘King’, Florence feels vulnerable and fearful, but being on stage is a moment of catharsis, and also where she must display confidence to the world. Her band and audience sit motionless, like wax-work figures (just as in ‘King’). This may be to highlight that her subjects of writing (her music, her friends and her partner) are models; lifeless topics of interest about which she observes, reduce to lifeless beings, and writes about. It could also be that, as she meanders between these people, she is trying to decide where to put her love, but her inability to decide means she feels disconnected from them.

Then, suddenly, the audience is standing, gasping. This is the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the world watched in shock as events unfolded. Florence is panicking, trying to navigate the situation but she cannot gain control.

Florence is left alone now that the audience have been isolated from her, instead surrounded by her ‘lace children’ - her inner thoughts, demons, and support. They dance frantically around her as her thoughts race and panic. One by one, they succumb to the effects of her isolation, collapsing as they do, until Florence no longer has any to support her, and she too collapses.

What is left as a broken version of herself, attempting to navigate the situation in the dark; alone and isolated. She rises again, but as a changed person. We hear the breathing once again to highlight her aloneness and vulnerability, except this time it is away from the performance and the stage.

Also of note, and as pointed out by one of our admins Ariel, Florence’s dress deconstructs and thus becomes less extravagent as the ‘show’ proceeds. This is possibly a reference to her becoming more and more vulnerable (Florence has previously stated that she used clothes to hide her insecurities), and also how COVID-19 stripped her usual freedoms and outlets, including that of fashion.

What are your thoughts? We’d love to hear them below! We’re still trying to work out the significance of the young man, seen first in the King video and now helping her climb down from the stage and facing the other way from everyone else in the gasping scene. Let us know what you think.

KING - Music video analysis

As with most Florence + the Machine music videos, the hidden meanings can be dark, covert and cleverly peppered with meaning. In extension of our music video analysis from previous eras, here’s our take on the new ‘King’ music video from the band’s yet-titled fifth album.

To set the scene, Florence released a statement that the song itself is about the torn identities she feels between being a female wanting to start a family, and being a performer. She stated that gender was not something she had previously considered, until reaching her 30s and suddenly coming to the realisation that male performers didn’t have to consider this aspect of their lives as readily as female counterparts.

The video begins with her partner appearing frustrated, mirroring the opening line of having an argument about whether to have children. Florence looks on eerily, observing the situation. Her partner appears fearful of her retaliation against his thoughts, and even more so when her own power in the situation haunts him. At first, Florence appears almost angelic, bathed in light, as she confronts her partner on these tricky topics. However, in an attempt to prioritise her artistic life from her private one, Florence lures him and then kills the bond between the two, symbolised by breaking the neck of her partner. Note that the light changes from bright and optimistic, to dark. This has several points of significance. Firstly, associations between kings and beheadings is rife throughout history. Secondly, this moment shocks the viewer intentionally, as it may have shocked Florence during her realisation that her two identities were not compatible. Thirdly, in killing the male, Florence attempts to fully embrace her feminine identity (note, in contrast to the How Big era where Florence openly modelled her image on male performers). The change in setting may represent reality versus imagination, as well as perceived good versus destruction.

However, despite the killing of this male dominance/identity, Florence continues to drag it around. Her back is turned, but it weighs her down. Florence summons femininity from within, and surrounds herself with this (the female dancers). She levitates throughout, asserting her position as transcending her identity. Notice that when not tied to her male identity or her personal life, and embracing her female identity, Florence is grounded - free - bounding amongst them from outside the confines of the walls she was previously trapped within at the start of the video, into the vast outside world. The contrast of the stereotypically feminine colours and outfits is stark compared with the brutalist decaying concrete structures that they are set against, further highlighting the division between her two identities.

The video concludes by showing performers levitating along with her. Note the performers are all male, whilst her female support remains grounded. This may symbolise the physical division between her male and female identities, with Florence deciding when to ground with the female or rise to the male. However, it might also show that her performance identity is literally put on hold (suspended) because of the tensions she faces between embodying the normalised female role in society, and being a performer in a male-centric career. If she is active at the feminine level, the male (performer) level must freeze and vice versa.

In the end, Florence realises that she cannot artificially separate these identities from each other. Instead, she embraces her personal life and masculine identity and becomes one with this. However, this may also represent how her personal life helps feed her artistic one, as she literally appears to eat her partner.

As ever, we want to hear your thoughts! Please leave them in the comments and let’s get a discussion going!

The Odyssey (Florence + the Machine) - Full Analysis

The Odyssey

Florence + the Machine

The Full Analysis

This is our final analysis from the How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful era; the full ‘The Odyssey’ film. We won’t be going into depth as we’ve done that already in previous analyses; this is an overview of the full cohesive film, although we do go into depth for ‘Third Eye’ as it is the newest and yet to receive an analysis.

“Between a crucifix and the Hollywood sign we decided to get hurt”. Florence has mentioned many times that How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful was the first song she wrote for this album, but also the last that she finished. It was the song that began Florence’s ordeal, and the opening scene to the Odyssey reflects that. A slow zoom into the crucifix that looms over the whole Odyssey (and LA) highlights the start of the descent into chaos, but also an isolating calm that Florence experienced during her year break. 

CHAPTER 1 - WHAT KIND OF MAN

Everything is rosy: Florence is driving in a car with her boyfriend, when suddenly, the car-crash happens. This is the start of Florence’s destructive year. The What Kind of Man sequence plays, which provides the feeling of sudden chaos that Florence is thrown into with this relationship. The storm of a relationship that will turn her life upside-down looms (in the air on the balcony - a nod to ‘Various Storm and Saints’ - and on the TV). She’s trying hard to fight the men that haunt her; that pull her down. It’s futile. She’s never had this experience before so she remains weak compared to this coming storm. 

CHAPTER 2 - HOW BIG HOW BLUE HOW BEAUTIFUL

Florence crawls out of the car-crash. She’s lost; she’s knocked down. She wonders in the street looking for somewhere to go, and instead finds herself led to the bridge that forces her to cross from freedom to purgatory, under the guise of the crucifix. She’s decided to get hurt. 

CHAPTER 3 - ST JUDE

Set in Mexico, this is no longer reality. This video jumps inside Florence’s head and soul, looking from the inside, hence the back-dated 1950s look and different setting. The storm that the meteorologists and that Florence saw coming on the balcony has arrived, and it has soaked her. She’s fragile; she can only be supported by her boyfriend at this point. The car crash has also caused a split to become apparent in Florence; on one hand she’s strong enough to walk by herself, and to see all this pain, but on the other, she physically sees her lifeless self being carried by her boyfriend, and is powerless to stop it. She wonders around, lost. 

CHAPTER 4 - SHIP TO WRECK

Back to reality, looking at Florence from the outside again. Florence has come from LA to London, just as she did on her year off. The two sides to Florence diverge even further. One half wants calm, the other is destructive. They are at odds with one another, fighting for different things, and hence fighting each other. Florence goes from on the floor in her bedroom, and ends up back in the same spot at the end, symbolising the repetitive nature of destruction that she just could not stop. 

CHAPTER 5 & 6 - QUEEN OF PEACE / LONG AND LOST

We jump back to inside Florence’s mind. This time, it’s set in Scotland; Florence’s ancestral home, when they were younger. These videos mirror the youth within Florence wanting peace and calm, but is unable to establish it because everything around her is not allowing it. It also highlights how her family and friends are trying to protect her from this man that is destroying her, but she’s blind to it. Eventually, they pull her away and force her to leave him behind. It destroys her. 

CHAPTER 7 - MOTHER

Back to real-life, Florence is trapped on this bridge still. Notice that this time, she’s physically imprisoned on it; she can reach out to freedom (the hole in the fencing), but she can’t quite get it. She’s told by her friend to leave, and she tells him she wants to stay. Her friend knows this can’t happen though: she can’t live in purgatory her whole life. 

CHAPTER 8 - DELILAH

Florence realises that it’s time to leave, or at least try. Throughout this video, she’s supported by those around her that help her leave. The man who told her to leave even offers to have his hair cut to give her the strength to do so, just as Delilah cuts Samson’s powerful hair in the biblical story. Together, her friends help her finally see that the other side to Florence is simply not her. They help her escape, and by the end of the video, she’s finally reached freedom, surfing on top of the car. This is ironic, considering her problems started with a car-crash. She’s learnt to control and make sense of the car-crash, and now she’s literally above it.

CHAPTER 9 - THIRD EYE (full analysis)

Florence has finally managed to burn away her problems; burn the storm within which she was trapped. This directly mirrors the hurricane symbol in “St Jude”, and the lyric “now there’s a few things we have to burn”. She’s finally managed exactly that, highlighting the full-circle that Florence has completed on this Odyssey. Instead of being passed on from man to man as in “What Kind of Man”, the man carrying Florence puts her down and leaves her. Florence is finally able to stand by herself. The men still surround her, but she’s able to lead them. They follow her this time, rather than her being carried by them. She’s able to walk through the purgatory of men carrying the weight of their stones/sins. She is no longer that person. The men around her come back, and try to bring her down, but with her saviours looking on, she is not strong and experienced enough to know how to control them. Through dance, she overcomes her torments. Florence said this herself, stating that within her year off, dance was her anchor whilst she was out at sea. The music fades, and Rob Ackroyd appears, showing us that Florence has truly come full-circle. Her band support her back onto stage, and she finally appears on stage. This is the final and ultimate level of freedom. Singing these songs that describe such an isolating time in her life to millions of people is literally the highest level of projection/freedom anyone can achieve. She’s returned to where she belongs; she’s returned to her true whole self. 

Delilah - Music Video Analysis (The Odyssey Chapter 8)

Delilah

The Odyssey, Chapter 8 Analysis

“Delilah” marks the end of Florence’s state in purgatory. For all the other music videos since the crash in “What Kind of Man”, Florence has been tormented by her boyfriend.

This video starts with the same hand-in-the-air as “Long & Lost” ended. Remember, Long & Lost ended with Florence being pulled away from her love, and now she’s without him, being told by a man that her faith can be restored if she loves herself (a hint to Third Eye?) now that she’s apart from her love. Florence #2 is seen walking away from this room, as if Florence #2 is the only one mourning, and the man is exorcising that Florence out of her body.

Florence #1 is then seen walking down a landing, with Florence #2 following her behind, tormenting her thoughts. Florence #1 is then seen cutting her love’s hair; just as in the biblical story of Sampson and Delilah, Delilah cuts Sampson’s hair since it is his power. Florence cutting her love’s hair may be suggesting Florence is cutting the chains and power that he has over her. This is reiterated when he is seen slumped on the bed, lifeless. The other women in bed with her could be a symbol of all the strong women Florence has drawn on into her own life to gain strength whilst her love has lost his. They support her as she is about to fall off the edge of the bed; when she’s seeing life upside-down literally.

The scene cuts to Florence hugging Florence #2, showing that she’s not quite ready to let the pitiful side of her go yet. They’re both mourning together.
Florence’s love is seen to cover her eyes, emphasising the lyric “and I’m going blind”, that her love blinded her from reality. In contrast to the women, the men around Florence are just lying there, unempathetic.

Florence beats her head against a chair, as if trying to eliminate her pain and sorrow of what she’s done on her own as well as a sort of prayer. The daemon on the bed is a reference to Florence’s sleep paralysis, which is said to give sufferers delusions of a shadow figure over you, stopping you moving. This could reference the sorrowful Florence #2 again - when awake, Florence #2 is seen as harmless to #1, but when asleep (metaphorically speaking, Florence has her eyes closed to reality in this relationship), #1 realises this “harmless” side to her is stopping her from moving on, just like the daemon stops sleepers from moving.

Florence suddenly wakes up from this. She goes outside and searches out/retraces all the men that were bullying her, as they were in “What Kind of Man”. She’s got total control over them now, until she goes too far and they start winning her over again. However, her woman friend (Comfort Fedoke) comes out and although Florence sees her as an obstacle at first, she takes Florence away from the situation, maybe a metaphor for her real friends helping her get over the loss of her boyfriend. Comfort Fedoke is then seen repeating the head-banging moves that Florence did earlier, emphasising that Comfort was helping Florence because she has been through the same situation before.

Then, the turning point comes. Thanks to the support of these women, Florence finally sees herself (#2) struggling with this man, and realises it’s not healthy. The disguise of it all is revealed, and Florence doesn’t want to believe it. Florence #2 tells Florence to run; to leave her old sorrowful self behind, and Florence #1 struggles with this. “I’m not you” mouths Florence #2

Florence #2, seen with all her torments (the men) behind her, ushers Florence away, and is also seen embracing Florence #1 by the pool in acceptance that this is the reality of things. The scene cuts to Florence #1 in the pool with her man. This highlights the fact that Florence was barely above water, solely dependent on this one man to save her before. Florence #2 is then shown face-down in the water; Florence has said goodbye to that destructive side of her, and now she's been killed off.

Florence changes out of her old clothes; literally, she is changing. She drags her man out of her life like he dragged her into it. Now, highlighted by Florence cruising on the car, she is truly free. Remember, that hand-gesture to the sky in Long & Lost / Queen of Peace was a symbol of freedom, but unlike in those two videos, now Florence is actually moving. She’s not statically hoping for freedom, but now she has it.

The video ends with cut-scenes from “What Kind of Man”, and what looks like “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful”. The “WKOM” scenes highlight how things have come full-circle. Florence is now out of hell, and is at a stage before the car-crash again. Now we’ve seen Florence go through everything after the crash, if it does happen again, we as the audience know how to deal with it. The greens may also be signifying a “grass is greener on the other side” mentality.

As with the shots of the trees resembling HBHBHB, we speculate that the whole Odyssey will come full-circle and end with the full video, especially since in the short version, there is an obvious scene cut when Florence goes into the cave and comes back out.

Queen of Peace / Long & Lost - Music Video Analysis (The Odyssey Chapters 5 & 6

Queen of Peace

The Odyssey, Chapters 5 & 6 Analysis

And so continues the odyssey of “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful”. “Queen of Peace” dropped today at 3pm BST, along with “Long and Lost” which features in the same video.

There are two families in this video – Florence’s, and the man’s that she falls in love with. These families dislike each other, and often fights occur.
The start of the video sees crashing waves against the coastline. It gives the impression of entrapment on this island. The waves are violent, just like the war between these two families that feature in it. If you try and escape from the violence, it only pushes you back in to the rocky shore. This theme runs throughout the video.
Young Florence is then seen walking to the edge of a cliff, stretching out her arm to symbolise the freedom from it all that she longs for. The scene then cuts to present Florence using the same gesture but towards her love, showing how her idea of freedom is being with her man, since her family forbids it. Her love sits with her in a field, and Florence steps over to her younger self, as if forcing herself to remember how this all started.

We then see that Florence first meets her love when the boy was fighting with a member of Florence’s family. Young Flo pulls the boy away from the fight, acting as the peace-maker. The scene jumps to older Florence, still trying to mediate the fight between the two families, but this time she’s on the outside of it all, unable to get it. All she can do is try and show affection to each member; she tries to remind them that they don’t need to fight if they show a little love.
Florence is then seen with her older man, except even though her love was the one fighting, it’s Florence that appears weak, as if the fighting is making her tired, and mentally hurting her more than the physical hurt being inflicted on her lover.

Throughout the video, Florence’s family keeps pulling her away from her love, leading her back home and keeping her there, away from him. Florence runs her hand over the walls of the house, once again highlighting her sense of no escape. Florence appears to be pleading with her family for escape through her movements, showing them affection throughout (although pushing her brother’s face, probably to show the stereotypical sibling feuds in a normal family).
Florence then appears on the cliff edge with her father (the symbol of freedom), again pleading with him. They both look tearful, and we’re not sure why, until the camera pans out and we then see that Florence has asked her father about being with the man from the other family, and he agrees to allow it. The father holds the man’s hand in acceptance, although the man is on his knees, showing how there is still a level of dominance between the families.

Now that Florence and her man are together, we see that their relationship is still strained because of the background dislike between the two families. A family photo is then set up during the (insinuated) marriage of the couple. None of the family members are smiling – the family has been forced together by the love of their children, but they are clearly still bitter about the situation.
Florence can’t keep up the façade of appearing normal for a photograph, just as she can’t keep up the lie that she feels comfortable in a relationship strained by feud. She bows her head to show this. Florence, and young Florence hiding in the background in the photo, are both holding daffodils, which are commonly used to symbolise new beginnings but also unrequited love – it’s as if young Florence knew the relationship wouldn’t hold, but went along with it in the hope that it would.

The scene cuts to young Florence and her love running away. Their families chase them, hunting them down to tear them apart. Notice how they are running away towards the cliff edge, once again alluding to the idea of the cliff edge meaning escape and freedom. Meanwhile, present day Florence is trying to stop another night-time fight from happening between her brother than her love.

The next scenes get even sadder. Florence is being locked out of her home, allowing her and her love to be swarmed by the mob and attack them. The scene where Florence’s dad accepts her lover on the cliff edge turns into her dad attacking him, in a scene that should symbolise freedom.

The narrator (presumably Florence’s love) says how the only thing they wanted from the love was to be accepted by each other, but not owned, since ownership means love so intense, that you can’t live. “Salt water’s no drink” explains this further – all water, just like love, looks safe to drink. Drink the wrong type, and instead of being given hydrated (living), the opposite can happen and you can dehydrate (not live), just as the wrong type of love can trap you from living your life.

Long and Lost begins. Florence’s family have decided to take her away from the island. Florence wanted freedom from the fighting, but now she has it, she wants to return. “Is it too late to come on home” back to the island. Unlike when she was trying to fix her family’s relationship with love, now that there’s nothing more to fix, she shows anger at them for taking her away. Once again, she touches the barriers, just like she touched the walls of her house, to highlight the constraint that still exists, even away from the island that was her prison. She feels as though her cause is lost. Her family try to hold her on their side, but she breaks free and moves to the complete opposite side of the boat’s deck. Two families with a divide have now become one family, still with a divide. One island that was once her prison has now become the boat to freedom, which is still her prison. That same “freedom” hand gesture at the beginning of the video appears again to emphasise this. No matter where she goes, whether she’s with or away from her love, she will be trapped. Nothing can make her truly free, since being in love is just as trapping as being out of it.

This fact really gives us an insight into how Florence felt in her 2013 relationship, and we can now begin to empathise with her during her year off, where she was constantly being reunited and then withdrawn from her man. The narration again at the end talks of waves crashing on shore; water and love are drawn together again, and both are used to explain how Florence felt that her love was just crashing her back into the coast that was her prison. When she tried to swim away, she’d get even more hurt when the waves pushed her back.

Ship to Wreck - Music Video Analysis (The Odyssey Chapter 4)

Ship To Wreck

The Odyssey, Chapter 4 Analysis

Just to start with some general points; it’s clear now that the song “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” is pivotal to Florence. She’s said before in interviews; she wrote that song, had a huge relationship/life disaster between, and came back to the same song. This is reflected in the preview of the “HBHBHB” video, when Florence is dancing with herself, at one with herself, then she loops into the darkness of the cave, and back out to the openness again. That dark cave – that is the filling that we are seeing now in her videos. The storms, the torture...

“Ship to Wreck” begins with Florence in the rain. Once again, there’s a storm following her. She’s in the darkness, lonely, drenched.The video shows Florence as split. One side of her is trying to hold it together, and the other is wrecking it all. Florence said how “Ship to Wreck”was written about Florence’s self-destruction.

By the looks of things, this video is following a typical day in Florence’s head when she was off from song-writing and performing.

Passive, “holding it together” Florence wakes on the floor of her bedroom. It’s a mess; she’s not looking after herself. She’s wrecked her house (she said in interviews that she did this on her time off!). She goes into her bathroom, looking reflectively into the mirror, wondering who she is.She doesn’t seem too happy about what she sees, and shakes, as if trying to exorcise her thoughts away. She climbs into the bath, which is devoid of water, possibly symbolising how she’s trying to cleanse herself but doesn’t quite know how. Instead, she ends up lying there helplessly.

The camera pans to destructive Florence (maybe it’s her feelings that are being shown here), shaking her man, taking her frustration out on him.

Passive Florence then goes into her dressing room to get changed. She hides amongst her clothes. Destructive Florence, however, is using them as weapons; throwing them at her man in anger.

Passive Flo then goes downstairs, picks up a book, and attempts to read in her living room. She’s trying to stay peaceful, but her destructive side is pulling her and her man apart. Passive Florence tried to stop herself, but it doesn’t work. The destruction wins over.

Passive Flo has guests round for lunch/dinner. She’s trying to look calm in front of them, serving them food. However, her destruction gets in the way again. She’s on the table, ruining things. It shows how her relationships were not just affecting her badly, but also her friends and family around her. Florence’s dad, for example, looks shocked and taken aback by this destruction.

The two Florence’s then start fighting with each other(completely different from the HBHBHB teaser video), grappling at each other, trying to pull the other back. Florence ends up on the floor, back where she started. Her life is a constant battle to get somewhere, but she gets nowhere; trapped in this cycle of destruction. Depression is a dark place, and often feels like this – a cycle that is never ending, and no matter how hard you try, it just makes things worse.

St Jude - Music Video Analysis (The Odyssey Chapter 3)

St. Jude

The Odyssey, Chapter 3 Analysis

St. Jude is a huge video, although it appears so simple. We can now see how Florence + the Machine are linking each music video to each other, showing the traumatic journey of pain and anger, but also love and happiness, Florence went through in her break from music. If you still don't think the videos so far make sense, we suspect that by the end of this era, everything will fit together if this continues! 

Just as a side point: notice how in every video so far, Florence has been wearing white. We think this is to symbolise her life as a blank canvas, easily spoilt, but also a basis for something beautiful (like love).

The basis of the song itself is that Florence feels her love for this man is a lost cause, and the saint of lost causes is St. Jude.

When introducing this song for the first time, live at The Dome, Florence said that the song was written because she felt like this huge storm was following her, physically (there was a storm in October 2013 called St. Jude across the south of England) and mentally. Just take a listen to the start of the “What Kind of Man” video again; Florence describes herself as in this storm, and it’s calm, but it’s still there and she can feel it.

The music video begins with Florence’s doppelganger commanding and appreciating the sky. Remember from the “How Big How Blue How Beautiful” video, this person is Florence’s other self that she’s battling with and getting to know. One half of Florence loves this huge sky, and the other half is scared of it (it brings storms, after all, and Florence said this in an interview). She's also naked above the waist - she's feeling at one with nature, and Florence said that this album is about loving the earth, whereas Ceremonials was more a dream-world album.

The setting is in hell (the director himself said this in a press release). Florence is literally going through hell, travelling through the “Circles of Hell”, of which there are 9. This video mainly focuses on the 1st and 2nd circles.

Just as a bit of background, historically, in the 1st, there is a state of limbo. The people who did not show faith go here. Maybe, in the video, this symbolises how Florence’s love with this man is almost hellish, and she’s in a state of limbo with it too. Is it good, or is it bad for her? It’s often described as a deficient form of heaven (the children symbolising innocence and good in the video), which therefore describes Florence’s love situation perfectly; at the time, it seems like heaven, but when she takes a step back, she realises it was actually hell.

In the 2nd circle, those who have sinned by lust are sent. The sinner’s soul is ruthlessly battered in a storm, and symbolise show the feeling of lust for someone is like being thrown around in a fierce wind. This reflects perfectly in the music video, which begins by showing a stone circle, in the pattern of a hurricane, with Florence and her man standing in the rain, in literally a broken home. Her man is carrying her in this storm; Florence feels weak and helpless in his grip, but he isn’t forceful in it (he lets her down). Once again, an ode to Florence feeling that she’s in a storm in this relationship. The stone storm circle (and therefore the storm) is left outside her house, showing that the storm has passed now. We believe “What Kind of Man” was set within this storm, when things were going terribly. Hence, in that video, the storms on TV, and the lightning on the balcony scene.

Another interesting scene is when Florence walks past herself outside the church. This is the same Florence that collapsed (during a storm, may I point out again) on the steps of the church in the “What Kind of Man” video. Now the storm has passed, she can reflect upon herself, and see herself from a different angle. The men carrying away the rocks are a way of showing the heavy weight love can have, and how confessing to the church is like lifting a rock from above her. Alexa Foor adds that "In Dante's Divine Comedy (on which the director based this video), there's a scene where Dante comes across men carrying heavy stones on their backs to pay for a specific crime". Another fan, Juan De Jesús, tells us that in Mexican Catholicism, people carry rocks to pay respect to St. Jude (manda).

After this scene, we see Florence being carried again, just like in the “What Kind of Man” video, but in a different situation. In that video, she was being carried into a chamber of torture by men. In this video though, she has the power to let herself down, because she isn’t in this storm anymore. You could even say that St. Jude caused this devastation in WKOM, in order for Florence to see what was truly happening, and therefore indirectly helping her.

A native asks her when she leaves her man’s side whether she’s lost, and Florence responds saying that she’s letting loss reveal it. She’s purposely lost her man, and lost herself, to reveal what she truly has in life, because St. Jude had caused the devastation in order for her to see it. She’s “trying to find the meaning” of her lust, and the second circle of hell is often described as the soul being blown by the storm meaninglessly to symbolise how lust meaninglessly pushes and pulls someone. Why does Florence love this man so much? It seems pointless.

Florence strays off the path that her man is taking her on, and collapses, maybe from the exhaustion of the storm throwing her around, or maybe because she’s off the path she was on that kept her supported. The birds then form a circle, hinting again at the circles of hell, reminding Florence that although everything looks like it could be heaven, it isn’t. Although she's separate from her man now, and she can take a step back and see the mistakes made, she's not out of the dark yet.

What do you think of the video? Think we’ve missed something? Comment below and we’ll add it in! 

FAN ANALYSES

Ryan Smith

At the beginning where it's raining inside the house, but then suddenly stops when she walks out, it could represent that there is a 'storm' within. Also the fact the house is a ruin could suggest that there had been some kind of disaster (such as a huge storm) in the past. the rain could represent that although the main disaster is over, there is still a part of it left that she is yet to overcome, and that this 'disaster' is within herself.
This therefore links this video back to the beginning of WKOM in the car where she says 'what if the disaster is within themselves', showing that what she was previously worrying about actually then became a reality. Leading on to my belief that these videos are her way of visually representing this journey of lust and heartbreak that she's been through in the two years that she had off. These two videos could just be the beginning of a journey that I'm hoping is going to be carried on throughout in future videos.

What Kind of Man - Music Video Analysis (The Odyssey Chapter 1)

What Kind of Man

The Odyssey, Chapter 1 Analysis

To quote Florence:
'There's such an extreme feeling to be in love, especially in quite an emotionally destructive relationship, where you’re both kind of really bad for each other, but you love each other so much. Those extreme emotions, I think, can only be described with extreme imagery.’

Florence begins by talking about how her boyfriend thinks that suffering physically (e.g. a storm, earthquake) in a situation together brings people closer together.
“But what if they are creating the disaster within themselves?” Florence asks. The video is about the difference in physical suffering, and mental suffering in a relationship.

This is the basis of the video. Florence is haunted by her past-lovers, who all grew apart from her, but still weigh her down. When she’s with her new man, she can’t help but have all these old boyfriends drag her down. It’s ruining her relationship. THIS is the disaster being created within themselves. Both of them know that their relationship isn’t working, and it isn’t right, but they keep going with it. Florence tries to fight it alone, but it doesn’t work, and needs her man to help her through the suffering together…

At the start, Florence’s dream was probably about how bad her relationship is with this guy. She was dreaming about all her old relationships dragging her down and hurting them both. He didn’t wake her up though; he didn’t suffer with her.
The scene cuts to Florence and boyfriend (BF from now on) standing on a balcony. A storm is coming. Florence is facing it, ready to take it on (physical suffering), but her boyfriend isn’t interested. He’s looking at her. He’s content, when she’s ready to suffer.

The scene cuts back to them in the car, and BF agrees that people suffering together (physically) are more connected than those that are happy together. This is completely contradictory to the previous scene, where Florence is ready to suffer during the storm and he isn’t. There is disconnection. The scene cuts again to Florence in the car, in the storm, alone. She’s physically suffering alone again. There’s a pink/blue tinge to the scene, maybe signifying how Florence is trying to look at the relationship through rose-tinted glasses, but can’t help feeling down about it still (blue colour). This is still contradictory to her BF saying that suffering together connects them. Maybe this shows he doesn’t want to be close to Florence.

The scene then cuts to Flo emerging from a bath, presumably deciding that suicide is not the way to deal with her suffering. Once again, she’s alone.

Florence realises the only way to get his attention, for them to be connected, is to please him, since clearly being content makes him feel closer than suffering. She decides to have sex with him to please him, even though she knows it’s not right, and it’s not helping them resolve their differences.

Whenever she’s with him, even when having dinner, she’s being suffocated and dragged down by her experiences she’s had with her old boyfriends.

It makes her ignorant, because she doesn’t want to let this new man go in fear that he’ll just be an addition to those old boyfriends, even though he doesn’t understand her needs. The disaster IS being created within themselves, and the video explores what happens when it is…

The scene cuts to them again, after having sex during a storm. There’s still no connection, even though they are going through a storm and have just been intimate. This is symbolised by them being on different corners of the bed. Back on the balcony, Florence diverts away from the storm, and tastes her boyfriend, almost like she’s trying to see what he’s really like, using all her senses to gauge whether he truly cares for her. Tasting him is also the closest connection you can get; she’s trying to relive that thrill of him and force a connection that’s not there during the storm.  

Florence tries to wash her suffering away by undergoing a baptism in the ocean. It’s a huge body of water, showing how she needs a lot of water to get rid of these thoughts she’s suffering with. She goes to church to confess them out. Notice how she’s suffering with other women in the ocean, but was alone in the confined bath. Her boyfriend is still not there to help.

She’s now sitting in the bedroom alone during the storm, once again highlighting how, even though BF said it’d connect them, he lied. He’s only there when times are happy, but as soon as she needs him, he’s gone. He holds her hand in the back of a car, showing that they’re together in it, and the car crash happens. Even when a huge catastrophe like a car crash happens, they are still separate (at the end, Flo crawls out alone again. She’s physically suffering alone again, even though they were both involved in the crash).

In the next scene, Flo is in panic, surrounded in her head by these men that haunt her. She’s carried into a vault/prison by them. She tries to fight them, but alone, she can’t overcome them. This is why she attempted suicide, baptism etc. In the vault, the other men are just watching her suffer, and not helping her. She feels trapped and under their control. However, BF appears and things begin to change. In the vault, the men disappear when he’s by her side, and likewise they stop fighting her when he appears in the hotel room.

The men in her thoughts eventually separate the two, but Florence and BF persist even when they’re being pulled apart. He finally cares, and realises that they must fight their relationship problems together. It’s this that brings them closer together. The problems created between the two of them are finally actually being dealt by both of them, and although it hurts them (the man gets a black eye, for example), it connects them. Florence herself said that "people think the men in the video represent my ex-boyfriends, but they really represent a lot of different forces that weren’t working for me".
Notice now how in the flash of a sex scene, Florence is finally above him, pushing BF down. She’s triumphant in her fight, but only after BF was there to help.

In the scene where she's wrapping her hands around herself, it's as if she's blocking out all the thoughts now; she's conquered her negative forces.

To summarise, Florence’s boyfriend feels that being in a physical disaster with Florence will bring them together. It’s clear that it doesn’t (in the storms, the car-crash etc. Florence is left on her own, isolated). Florence then asks whether a disaster created within themselves (a love that both of them know is wrong, and a love that’s tainted with past experiences in relationships) will bring them closer together. The answer here is yes. At first, Florence is left to suffer alone, and she completely fails, resorting to suicide attempts, loveless sex and more to make them feel connected or just escape all together. Her boyfriend finally sees that both of them must try to conquer their relationship problems together, and they do, and it works.

The now-hurt boyfriend and Florence caress. If you look closely, now that they’re holding on to each other, the other men can’t break them up and are losing the fight. Florence and BF are truly connected to each other, the other men can’t hurt them anymore. They can’t break them up, and this proves Florence’s question; suffering together DOES make relationships stronger, and helps you get through anything.

But what do you think the video is about? Did we miss something?

FAN ANALYSES

Natalja Woody

Right now i think that the conversation in the beginning, between Florence and her lover, is the last thing that happens. This conversation brings up the idea of dreams and suffering (nightmares). Then there's a flash of a few nightmares (the hands grabbing florence) and memories (them standing on a balcony). I think that the car crash is the first thing that happens. Florence crawls out of the upturned car and passes out from trauma. I also think that her lover dies in the car (since you can see his head dangling while Flo crawls out of the car). Then a man comes and picks Florence up and carries her into a metal building (?). During this Florence remembers/dreams of other nightmares and sexual experiences. It becomes apparent that the man has brought Flo to be sexually abused by all the men in the metal building (im not sure what the venue is) as they sit around her as she lies on a dirty mattress. In the video she screams and makes to attack these men, and even slaps away one if their hands when they touch her. During this the scenes of her being attacked by men (the choreographed part in a different room somewhere) is paralleling this experience in a dream. Florence searches through the men for her lover, and when she finds him they all work to keep them apart. Flo embraces him and its clear he has wounds (bleeding from the head), meaning shes aware that he is hurt (since she wouldn't be seeing wounds on him in her dreams if she didn't think he was hurt, ie dead in the car accident). The men pull her away from him as she reaches after him. This eludes to the men raping Florence (pulling her away from her lover, polluting and perverting sex "what kind of man loves like this") Then i think the men throw her into the ocean, after which she is found by a couple of women. Then, as seen in a scene about halfway through the video, Florence, completely distraught, runs to a church still soaking wet and falls to her knees in it's entrance. Then she dreams of her lover and her driving down an infinite and isolated road discussing love and suffering.

Mary E. Gootee- Schafers
The story of the film is about a young women played by Florence who is talking to her boyfriend in the car about when she was talking in her sleep. He did not wake her because she seemed to be in pain and he did not want to intrude on her suffering. She responds cheerfully that she thinks that people who share their sufferings would grow closer together. He points out that suffering is personal and is often in the individuals mind. She laughs and says, “It’s almost like they are making their own suffering.”

Flashback to the young women again in a car with another guy also talking about the nature of suffering but he doesn’t really seem to be listening to her.

A lot of the video is cut out of order but I think I have the story’s order of events now that I have seen the video a few times.

Spoilers Ahead: Flo is seen with the man from the car on a balcony, in a fancy dress, trying to prevent him from ditching her in Mexico. We go back to the car with the same guy and mid sentence the car is hit by another car. This leads to Flo and the guy being tossed against the interior of the car.

I think after the car crash Flo and the guy are kidnapped by a group of men. The men first take Flo to a hotel to subdue her and she is made to eat and dress how they like without any say in the matter. (Sound familiar? The clothing change is not on screen but she is not wearing the same clothes from the crash so I think they forced her to change or the scene with the hands while she is eating my be her having a date with the boyfriend from the start of the video but she is hit with PTSD. I think this because she is wear a short sleeve shirt for the first car scene and not the long sleeved one from after the crash.)

The woman fights back against her attackers and tries to reconnect with her boyfriend. The guy is taken away and is never seen again. Then they take her an under group place where the women is presumably tortured and sexually assaulted. After the rape she angrily sings at her abusers on the mattress where she was attacked.

Off screen she escapes from the man. She takes a bath and tries to drown her self. (Their is a higher suicide rate for victims of rape and sexual abuse than the general public) On screen the women emerges from the bath water gasping for air. Off screen she goes to the ocean to try and drown her self again.

She is saved by a group of women in black mantillas (most likely they just got out of Mass and saw the women struggling in the ocean). The scene where the women take her out of the water looks like a baptism. (A symbol of new life maybe?) The woman struggles to the church and collapse sobbing. (Looking for sanctuary and peace maybe like in No Light No Light?)

Sometime after the car crash the women is in a new relationship with the guy in LA from the beginning of the video. She really likes him but the trauma of what she survived still makes it hard for her to get intimate. (It is very common for sexual abuse survivors to struggle with trust, intimacy, and PTSD) After trying to get something started the boyfriend leaves, confused, but respectful of the fact she is not ready to go farther. The woman is left to watch an oncoming storm while she re dresses. (In the beginning of the video she talks about a storm raging in a suffering persons mind.)

I think the conversation at the beginning of the video shows that she is testing the waters to she if he would be willing to hear her past struggles. He does not want to know her struggles and she keeps them to herself. (Even the best man in this video isn’t perfect and cannot complete her. No one can.)

The end of the video shows Florence pulling herself out of the crashed car, which is both lonely and triumphant. This video is dark, but I think a generation that flocks to 50 Shades Of Grey and makes Blurred Lines a number one hit needs this video!

LukeLovesFlorence

The last shot you see is her crawling out of the car crash. We know he was in the car with her, but we never see him again.

I just think that what she learned (and this seems evident in both the video and song alone), is that it’s not healthy to be in a relationship with someone who is okay with letting you suffer. “What kind of man loves like this?” Not a very good one. I think it’s about her realizing she needs out of it.

I also think there’s an interesting theory to be had in the prospect that WKOM is the flip side to Heavy in Your Arms. In one song, she blames herself for all the problems (“I’M so heavy…” “I was a heavy heart to carry… My love has concrete feet…”) Then in WKOM she realizes that maybe, just maybe it wasn’t all her fault. Maybe she needed to stop blaming herself. She had been blaming herself for her suffering… only to realize that HE watched her suffer while having the ability to stop it.. but then didn’t. That’s epic. I feel like she realized that she wasn’t the problem and that she needed to get out of it and move on.

I know that seems a little contradictory to the line “I can’t beat ya ‘cause I’m still with ya,” but I feel like that was just how she felt in the midst of it, before she made up her mind.

Jacqueline Naomi

To add some literary theory, the ‘Fallen Woman’ is an iconographic symbol found often in Victorian literature and art (likely the origin of Florence’s fascination with it). The Fallen Woman is a woman who - having ‘sinned’, either by premarital sex, infidelity or other immoral behaviour - drowns herself for absolution. The water is a purifying agent (think the flood in the Bible, or baptism, as you touched upon) and cleanses the woman not only physically but morally also. This adds another layer of depth to the video… Perhaps the Florence in the video feels ‘unclean’ from her past trysts?

Sean McInally

When Florence crawls out of the car at the end, I'd say that shows she's survived the wreckage of the relationship and she's leaving him behind.

Louie Addler

I infer the lyric of 'What Kind Of Man' also can be related to God.

The lyric says,

'With one kiss, you inspired a fire of devotion that lasted for 20 years.'

And you know, Florence is only 29, and it's hard to assume that she met love of her life when she was 9. (and it was devoted love.)

God, referring to any religion, loves us. But he's also so cruel. He's sometimes half in, sometimes half out, but he never let us go nor excludes someone who willingly wish to worship him.

He is always on the other side just watching us. Even if any terrible disaster strikes us, he just let us suffer.

Literally he manage to love us like heaven and torture us like hell.

What kind of man loves like this?