Dance Fever (album)
Dance Fever is the upcoming fifth studio album by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine. It is set to be released on 13 May 2022, by Polydor Records. Its release is preceded by the singles "King", "Heaven Is Here", “My Love” and "Free". The album cover was shot by American photographer and film director Autumn de Wilde, who also shot the music videos and single covers for the album's first four singles. Background and recording. In early 2022, Florence and the Machine were confirmed to be headlining a series of summer music festivals, including  the Madrid's Mad Cool. On 21 February 2022, fans of the band received a medieval-styled card in the mail that featured a photo of Florence Welch dressed in period clothing. The card had the word "King" on it, and each envelope was inscribed with the wording "Florence + the Machine - Chapter 1" along its back. That same day, digital billboards began popping up around London that featured the same picture of Welch that was printed on the card. The band's website was also updated with fifteen cards, the first of which featuring the mailer's design. The  single, titled "King" was digitally released on 23 February 2022 along with its accompanying music video. Soon after, the second single "Heaven Is Here" was released on 7 March. On 9 March 2022, Welch posted the album cover to her Instagram account in a post announcing the album's pre-order date. She described the album as "a fairytale in 14 songs" in the same post. The announcement was followed up with the release of the third single "My Love" on 10 March. The majority of the album was recorded in London. The first recording sessions for the album were  originally scheduled to take place in March 2020 in New York City but were scrapped after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. While recording the "anthemic" "Dance Fever", Welch and her collaborators fostered a "dance, folk, ‘70s Iggy Pop" sound in the vein of "Lucinda Williams or Emmylou Harris and more" that is meant to be enjoyed during "the return of clubs, live music and dancing at festivals". Welch also found inspiration in "the tragic heroines of pre-Raphaelite art, the gothic fiction of Carmen Maria Machado and Julia Armfield, the visceral wave of folk horror film from  The Wicker Man" to the A24 films The Witch" and "Midsommar", and "folkloric elements of a moral panic from the Middle Ages". The title of the album was inspired by Welch's fascination with choreomania. Track listing. Notes