Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine
Marked by an energic bassline and an eerie background choir, “Witch Dance” begins with Florence Welch describing sexual intercourse with death as a metaphor for hear near-death experience following an ectopic pregnancy just two years before. Talking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music, she mentioned that
...
[Verse 1]
Open my legs, lie down with death
We kiss, we sigh, we sweat
His blackberry mouth stains my nightgown
I pull him close
Wrap my legs around and it tastes like life
I twist, I bite
The foxes chatter in the night
[Chorus]
Show me the way
This feeling leads
The ache, the kick, the need
Show me the way
This feeling leads
The ache, the kick, the need
[Post-Chorus]
A shimmering landscape, I widen my eyes
Can I keep all this beauty forever inside?
[Verse 2]
I tear off my nightgown and run naked through the town
Run through rain, run through fog
Taking consolation in cats and dogs and things that cannot speak
Ran to the ancestral plane, but they all showed up drunk and insane
When I asked what I could offer them
They said, "Gin and tonic or lithium"
I asked, "Which way should I go?"
Through cigarette smoke, they said, "Child
How would we know?"
[Chorus]
Show me the way
This feeling leads
The ache, the kick, the need
Show me the way
This feeling leads
The ache, the kick, the need
[Post-Chorus]
Desire beyond reason
Ruinous thing
A stranger came to my door
And I welcomed him in
My feet are bleeding
But I cannot stop, I have many, many miles
Yet to cross
[Bridge]
I came to a clearing
Full of wailing and keening
A well of tears that never runs dry
The women said, "We've been waiting
Waiting to meet you, it's only a matter of time"
Thrust my fists in the ground
And the earth made a moaning sound, oh, oh
I could feel something shudder
Deeper, deeper down
[Outro]
And I met every monster from the bar to Broadway
And all their violent offers, I just turn them away
And your threats and your promises, they don't scare me
After all, there's nobody more monstrous than me (Woo)
Than me (Woo)
Witch Dance was written by Florence Welch & Mark Bowen.
Witch Dance was produced by Aaron Dessner & Mark Bowen & Florence Welch.
Florence + the Machine released Witch Dance on Fri Oct 31 2025.
There’s a song called ‘Witch Dance’ which was sort of about grief rituals and so there is a practice of keening in Ireland and basically it’s like a sound of grief. It’s like a howl but it’s sort of like like keening. That one was about sort of different grief rituals um and things to try and commem...