The title track on “Everybody Scream,” the new album by Florence and the Machine, opens with a synth organ layered over an eerie choral harmony. In the video , directed by Autumn de Wilde, Florence Welch stands on a low stage in a sixteenth-century manor house with a crowd of people—old men in suits, women in black gowns—convulsing around her, as if she is leading a mass exorcism. A coven of witches in white blouses and long skirts leap onto tables, eyes bulging and teeth bared. Welch, who is wearing a crimson-red dress and matching heels, spits flowers onto a man as she writhes over him. Somehow, it works.

Known for her red hair, bohemian dress, and pagan-inspired lyrics, Welch has brought gothic fanfare to pop music for nearly two decades. In her songs, she regularly communes with dem

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