Florence Welch made her name with huge, dramatic choruses that shook listeners to their core. Her 2009 debut, Lungs, put her powerhouse vocals in the spotlight and made her an inimitable star. Now six albums in, Welch is an established force, meaning it’s the perfect time to release her weirdest, rawest, angriest album yet. Everybody Scream sheds all the pretty, lush arrangements of much of her previous work, building a musical world that’s haunting, creepy and intensely fun. That, and it’s being released on Halloween, is the perfect cherry on top. Everybody Scream was born after Welch endured lifesaving surgery while touring for her last album, 2022’s Dance Fever. Her recovery pushed her towards mysticism, witchcraft and the grim reality of mortality. All those themes show up here, gloriously and alongside a truly don’t-give-a-fuck attitude. She wrote the title track with Mitski and IDLES’ Mark Bowen and recorded with The National’s Aaron Dessner. It’s a stomping, campy anthem equipped with echoing screams, churning guitars and Welch finding a calming truth in the storm: “Here, I don’t have to be quiet/ Here, I don’t have to be kind/ Extraordinary, normal all at the same time.” “You Can Have It All” captures the drama that made Lungs so iconic, but far darker and more foreboding, the song creaks, billows and brews into a whipping, hurricane-strength finale that will have crowds losing their minds. On “Music by Men,” Welch is in the car on the way to couples therapy, hoping and praying in a gorgeously devastating dirge: “Let there be a quiet day and an easy night/ Let me put out a record and have it not ruin my life.” Welch has a singular voice in pop music; Everybody Scream is a reminder that she’s an undeniable creative force as well.