Florence + The Machine Announce New Album High As Hope, Debut New Track “Hunger”

Florence + The Machine have announced their highly anticipated new album High As Hope, out on June 29 on Republic Records. Florence Welch and her band have also shared the first single from the record, “Hunger,” accompanied by a A.G. Rojas-directed new video.

This new record is the band’s fourth studio album and their first since their critically acclaimed 2015 release How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. “Hunger” is the album’s second single, following “Sky Full of Song,” which was released last month.

The new album was written, mixed and co-produced by frontwoman Welch, marking her first time co-producing a Florence + The Machine album. The majority of the record was recording in solitude, as Welch rode a bike to her South London studio to record daily. She finished the songs in Los Angeles with her friend and co-producer Emile Haynie, and also brought in some big-name collaborators. The record features appearances from Kamasi Washington, Sampha, Tobias Jesso Jr., Kelsey Lu and Jamie xx. Welch mixed the record in New York, where the city’s towering skyline gave the album its title.

The new song is the perfect track for the start of summer. “Hunger” is a joyous, communal pop anthem of love and acceptance with Welch’s awe-inspiring, larger-than-life vocals leading the way out of the darkness and into the sunlight.

“This song is about the ways we look for love in things that are perhaps not love, and how attempts to feel less alone can sometimes isolate us more,” says Welch. “I guess I made myself more vulnerable in this song to encourage connection, because perhaps a lot more of us feel this way than we are able to admit. Sometimes when you can’t say it, you can sing it.”

Florence says that her new record was inspired by her South London upbringing, her family, relationships and art itself. “There’s a lot of love in this record, loneliness too, but a lot of love,” she said. “It’s always a work in progress, and I definitely don’t have everything figured out. But this feels like quite a pure expression of who I am now, as an artist, and an honest one. I’m just more comfortable with who I am.”

Welch recently announced a handful of intimate U.S. tour dates, which you can check out here.

Watch the new video for “Hunger” below, and check out the album artwork and tracklist further down. You can preorder High As Hope here.

High As Hope Album Art:

High As Hope Tracklist:
01. June
02. Hunger
03. South London Forever
04. Big God
05. Sky Full of Song
06. Grace
07. Patricia
08. 100 Years
09. The End of Love
10. No Choir