Dance Fever Analysis- "King"

Knowing that she called this her "gothic fairytale..." makes me very happy and excited to listen to more!

English Teacher KP

You make so many good points! I agree about the vulnerability of the opening lines! Also, that Taylor line about talking "real slow" drives me crazy as well 😭😭😭

English Teacher KP

This is an amazing reaction! Seeing the way the music effects someone new in real time is just amazing, and the way you were able to relate just shows how beautiful the song is. Florence marketed this album as her “gothic fairytale in 14 songs,” hopefully that tidbit helps when going deeper into the album. She’s also said a lot of inspiration for this album came from the 1518 Dancing Plague in a region in France (then the Holy Roman Empire), and relates it to the pandemic we all just went through. I’m excited to see what you’re able to get out of these songs, she’s an amazing storyteller and you always pick up on a lot of things I miss in these analysis videos. I hope you end up loving it, it’s a truly amazing album!

Ryan

it has always bothered me at the beginning of the song that she says "and how much is art really worth; the thing that you're the best at is the thing that hurts the most" because hurts the "worst" would've fit so much better with "worth" in the line before haha it's one of those lines like taylor swift's "and you talk real slow" instead of "talk real low" that mildly bother me i adore this song especially the beginning about arguing in the kitchen it's so vulnerable. i'm usually very focused on lyrics but even that instrumental bridge (?) where she does the wordless vocals make me emotional. this song makes me cry sometimes too i get u i feel like there also aren't that many songs about this subject matter so i'm glad the one we have is this amazing i'm pretty sure this was one of my most listened to songs on spotify last year. just so great

j

Yay, I love when timing works out! I'm ready for next week's song, and I'll keep in mind that it may be emotional! Thanks for the heads up!

English Teacher KP

Loved this analysis! I think you’re going to enjoy next week’s song, especially in terms of the music! It’s a lot more uplifting. Sometimes it makes me emotional so you might not be in the clear from that yet! She doesn’t sing as quietly and softly in the next song as she does in parts of King. I’m so excited for this whole analysis, I’m on maternity leave so it’s definitely good timing for me!

Thank you so much! I can definitely tell that this is going to be a great album to analyze!

English Teacher KP

Thank you for this!

English Teacher KP

I'm glad it wasn't just me 😭😭😭 "Dancing through a sick fog" is a great image! I just think the title of this album is so interesting.

English Teacher KP

I'm so glad you enjoyed the video! I am excited and nervous now for the rest of the album. I'm sure that you are 100% correct regarding the intentionality of the album tracks. Starting off with such an emotional song seems very deliberate.

English Teacher KP

Thanks for a SUPERB first reaction. Florence became one of my favorite artists last year when I delved into her catalogue, she is a WRITER through and through. LOTS of fun literary things to analyze in the upcoming tracks and I’m so so pleased at how thorough you were with this first track. It has me so hyped for what’s to come!

Edward Ramirez

Some context on this album is before she wrote this album she actually said she was going to stop writing and singjng for a while and focus on settling down, but then the pandemic happened and dance fever was created through the anger and confusion.

Sydney

I was sobbing mess with this one as well! It is such a powerful song. When I looked at the album title for the first time I thought of like dancing through a sick fog or dancing even when it's hard cause you just want to lay down from being exhausted from the fever. I really think you will enjoy next week's song Free.

Sydney

King was my most listened to song of 2022… and Dance Fever my most listened to Album. First album to ever out perform Taylor on my Spotify 😂 I have watched to every live performance of it on YouTube that exists probably 10 times over… This song especially was super emotional for me as well, it just hit me so hard at exactly this point in my own life where I am wondering and thinking about all these things. Regarding what Florence intended for her audience to feel during this song… I cant say for sure… but I think she chose the order of the track list very intentionally. Thats all I will say for that. I think anyone who listens to this album out of order here just misses part of the experience. So many of your connections you brought up felt so real to my understanding of the album that I was screaming other songs lyrics at my phone a few times as you spoke 😂 you really are so good at this. I wrote a couple of them down to remember to bring up when the appropriate video drops. Lastly I do not know if you ever watch the music videos for these songs but I couldn’t help but think you would find the video from this one… uhh actually probably very disturbing hahahaha (despite emphasizing so much of the imagery you mentioned, again so spot on) but the OoOo’s section of the video is so powerful idk its one of my favourite music videos ever but I also have a bit of a dark sensibility and quite enjoy being in this emotionally intense place. Such a emotional and beautiful reaction to this song. Thank you thank you thank you. There is something that I find so beautiful about hearing someone really pay this much attention to a song I love so much and I really do feel like you helped me discover new corners of it despite how familiar I am with it. Cant wait for next week.

Sorry if I got a bit ramble-y in parts of this video. I was very overwhelmed by my own emotions and personal connections to the lyrics. I cried for like twenty minutes straight after stopping this video, and I am still a little shaken 😭😭😭 I do understand the sort of feminist sentiment of the song, and I appreciate the way the speaker plays around with gendered language as a sort of commentary on gender roles.

English Teacher KP

I apologize that the track volume is so low. I don't have it set any lower than I normally play videos, but I think I may need to turn the volume up a bit for Florence + the Machine tracks in the future.

English Teacher KP