Florence Welch has done it. She made the transition from indie icon to full-fledged pop star on last year’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, which went directly to No. 1. With her newfound exposure, the inimitable sad-pop powerhouse has been collaborating with other artists. You remember that haunting snippet on Rihanna’s Anti bonus track “Goodnight Gotham,” right? Florence. Once you’ve made Rihanna a fan, it’s time to sit back on your laurels as an artist, right?
Wrong. Of course, Florence has done just the opposite, and instead doubled down on her creative output. The latest collab is a song for Tim Burton’s new movie, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. The song, entitled “Wish That You Were Here” will jerk all the same heartstrings as the Pink Floyd with a very similar name, and features Welch’s spectacular bellowing over top strings, stirring drums and a whole host of choral harmonies. What else would you expect from pop’s most dramatic (at least in song form) diva?
Welch, who has a way with words even when she’s not writing them as lyrics explained the song’s themes in a press release:
[The song is] about the idea that love is a journey and a risk. Having been on tour, I’ve lived in a sort of magical time bubble, where the days almost blend together. It’s amazing, but it comes at a cost — a cost of leaving the people you love behind for a year or two. You kind of feel like if you could sing a song into the wind, maybe the wind could take it to them in a way that you can’t with a text or a call. You just want to send your love in a different way, in a way to somehow reach the unreachable.
From now on that’s how I’m sending my love, too. Listen above and watch for the Burton film to hit theaters September 30.
