Florence + The Machine returned last night with a new song, “King,” and it immediately climbed into the upper reaches of the Genius Top Songs chart.
Leading up to the release of “King,” Florence + the Machine had been keeping pretty quiet. After dropping the 2020 single “Light of Love,” the British rock band went on a hiatus of sorts, only releasing one song, “Call Me Cruella,” in 2021 for Disney’s Cruella soundtrack.
Florence + the Machine frontwoman and mastermind Florence Welch wrote and produced “King” with pop hitmaker Jack Antonoff. In a press release, Welch revealed that the song is about being at a crossroad in life that is singular to women. “Thinking about being a woman in my 30s and the future, I suddenly feel this tearing of my identity and my desires,” she explained. “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.”
Welch arrives at this crossroad in the first verse, where she argues with her partner over the future of their relationship.
We argue in the kitchen about whether to have children
About the world ending and the scale of my ambition
And how much is art really worth
The very thing you’re best at
Later on in the verse, Welch defies the traditional gender roles assigned to women by choosing her career over marriage and children. It’s a decision she thinks men in her same position wouldn’t have to make; there’s little pressure placed on them to fill those domestic roles.
You need to go to war to find material to sing
I am no mother, I am no bride, I am King
On the chorus, Florence provides a little more insight into her decision. She believes a happy, domestic life wouldn’t offer her the inspiration she naturally craves as a tortured artist.
I need my golden crown of sorrow, my bloody sword to swing
My empty halls to echo with grand self-mythology
In the second verse, though, Welch begins to experience a change of heart, leading her to question her decision.
But a woman is a changeling, always shifting shape
Just when you think you have it figured out
Something new begins to take
Her conflicting desires boil under the surface on the outro. Part of her longs to be a wife and mother, and that longing may never totally go away.
I was never satisfied, it never let me go
Just dragged me by my hair and back on with the show
“King” arrived alongside an Autumn de Wilde-directed music video.
You can check out all of the song’s lyrics on Genius now.
