April 19th is a special day for Swifties around the world. Taylor Swift’s latest and eleventh album, The Tortured Poets Department, is scheduled for a release on Friday. Besides the Cruel Summer songstress’s riveting list of tracks, TTPD also features two noteworthy collaborations with Post Malone and the English alt-rock band, Florence & The Machine.
Lead vocalist and songwriter Florence Welch was listed as one of the feature artists on Swift’s new album. The singer duo’s long-standing friendship has piloted their first-ever music collaboration with the track, Florida!!!.
Who is Florence Welch?
Born in London, Florence Welch is best known for her angelic vocals and poetic flair. She serves as the lead vocalist and the central songwriter for Florence & The Machine. The 37-year-old musician is a celebrated artist with eight Grammy nominations and several chart-topping albums with her band.
Florence & The Machine formed in 2009 and gained recognition with their debut album, Lungs the same year. The indie rock band primarily includes keyboardist Isabella Summers, guitarist Rob Ackroyd, and harpist Tom Monger. Lungs topped the UK Albums Chart in their debut year ranking at No. 2 for the first five weeks, per Billboard. They also won the Brit Awards for Best British Album in 2009. Florence & The Machine has released five studio albums. Lungs ranks at 723 in the overall greatest album chart, per Best Ever Albums.
Welch has also utilized her poetic finesse by authoring the book, Useless Magic that released in 2018. It is an artistic project featuring a collection of poems, lyrics, and illustrations.
Billboard dived deeper into the talented songwriter’s track, No Light, No Light, from her 2011 album, Ceremonials and deduced a stark contrast between the music and lyrics. They remarked, “Musically, the song exudes utter strength; lyrically, Welch is on her knees.”
Speaking of Welch’s bond with Taylor Swift, the stars share a mutual friend Blake Lively. In 2012, they met through the Hollywood star and were instantly in awe of each other’s presence. “What sets Florence apart? Everything…There are very few people I’ve met in my life who are truly electric, and Florence is one of them,” Swift told Billboard in 2015.
Likewise, Florence returned the gesture with a compliment of her own. The musician told the outlet, “Taylor said that you must sing about what’s happening in your life.” She emphasized that Swift encouraged the release of her 2015 album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.
What is The Tortured Poets Department about?
As critics and fans get the first glimpses of the new album, Taylor Swift gets smothered with praises for releasing a “messy, wildly unguarded breakup album,” per Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz. The Tortured Poets Department explores the songstress’s recent love affairs in addition to her public image. The eleventh album of her career, TTPD’s release comes after her 2022 album, Midnight.
The 16-track album envelopes the song, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, which is rumored to be based on her six-year relationship with actor and boyfriend Joe Alwyn. TTPD has entangled itself with a reputation of misery, heartbreak, and all things tragic.
