Florence + The Machine rage against male ego and industry double standards on new track ‘One Of The Greats’

Florence + The Machine’s Florence Welch has offered up another preview of her forthcoming sixth album ‘Everybody Scream’ (out on 31st October), and it’s a near-eight minute epic mediation on the price of being deemed ‘One Of The Greats’. 

Recalling the rough-edged poetry-rock fusion of Patti Smith, the track sees Florence reflect on ideas of musical legacy and the need to prove oneself - especially in an enduringly male-dominated industry: “It must be nice to be a man / And make boring music just because you can,” she sings. 

Expanding more on the single’s conception, Florence has mused: “I don’t really know how to explain myself with this one, it was sort of a long poem about the cost of greatness. Who gets to decide what that is? Why do I even want it? Why am I never satisfied? 

I feel like I die a little bit every time I make a record, and kind of literally nearly died on the last tour. Yet I always dig myself up to try again, always trying to please that one person who doesn’t like it, or finally feel like I made something perfect and I can rest.” 

Continuing, she notes: “Early in my career, I was consistently ridiculed and derided for the bigness of my expression. I was thrust into the spotlight but also told again and again I didn’t deserve it, or that because it wasn’t to their taste it wasn’t good. So maybe this is a 15-year outpouring of frustration. But also, a lot of the lines I just left in because I thought they were funny.” 

Written and recorded in one take with IDLES’ Mark Bowen, ‘One Of The Greats’ was produced by Aaron Dessner - who, in Florence’s words “helped us take it to a truly transcendent place”. 

“I wanted it to feel like you were disintegrating into nothing at the end,” she has said. “Which is sometimes what the creative process feels to me. Death and resurrection over and over.” 

Watch the striking visualiser for ‘One Of The Greats’ below.