Just days after Florence And The Machine fans received cryptic teasers in the mail, the band has returned with “King,” a new song accompanied by an Autumn de Wilde-directed music video.
On “King,” lead singer Florence Welch mediates on womanhood and feminity, while subverting traditional expectations of a woman. “I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king,” Welch sings over a haunting arrangement of drums and a chilling tamborine.
In the video, Welch dons a purple gown, snaps a man’s neck, and summons a troupe of dancing women zombies.
“As an artist, I never actually thought about my gender that much,” Welch said in a statement. “I just got on with it. I was as good as the men and I just went out there and matched them every time. But now, thinking about being a woman in my 30s and the future, I suddenly feel this tearing of my identity and my desires. That to be a performer, but also to want a family might not be as simple for me as it is for my male counterparts. I had modeled myself almost exclusively on male performers, and for the first time I felt a wall come down between me and my idols as I have to make decisions they did not.”
Watch “King” above.
