Florence + The Machine today releases her highly-anticipated new album, Dance Fever. The album features previously-released tracks ’My Love’, ‘Free’, ‘King’ and ‘Heaven is Here’, all of which arrived alongside breathtaking videos from acclaimed director Autumn De Wilde.

Dance Fever was recorded in London over the course of the pandemic in anticipation of the world’s reopening. It was clubs, dancing at festivals, being in the whirl of movement and ultimately music and togetherness that Florence missed the most during lockdown. It was the hopes and dreams of reunions with loved ones and dancing with strangers that helped keep the momentum of Dance Fever alive. That ecstasy, proximity, euphoria at the possibilities of movement served as a reminder of the loss of performance and dancing in clubs. Afterall, music is the unique art form that has the power to help you lose yourself and feel free of anxieties, even if for a moment.

The image and concept of choreomania—a Renaissance phenomenon in which groups of people danced wildly to the point of exhaustion, collapse and death—became a focal point of inspiration. Forced off the road for the first time in more than a decade, dance offered Florence propulsion, energy and a way of looking at music more choreographically.

Starting, as ever, armed with a notebook of poems and ideas, Florence had just arrived in New York in March 2020 to begin recording when Covid-19 forced her to retreat back to London. Holed up at home, the songs she had begun started to transform.

Dance Fever is an album that sees Florence at the peak of her powers, coming into a fully realised self-knowledge, poking sly fun at her own self-created persona, playing with ideas of identity, masculine and feminine, redemptive, celebratory, stepping fully into her place in the iconic pantheon.

Produced by Florence Welch, Jack Antonoff and Dave Bayley, Dance Fever brings back the very best of Florence and was made for the stage. Florence will return to Australia in March 2023 on her ‘Dance Fever’ tour with special guest King Princess, full dates below. This morning Florence announced a second Melbourne show for Thursday March 9, with the Frontier Members Presale beginning 11am AEST May 16 and general public on sale 10am AEST May 18. For more details click here.