Music
Florence + The Machine's "Dream Girl Evil" Was Inspired By Your Fave Thriller Series
"When I see terribly behaved women, especially young women, there’s a liberation."
A fearsome, anthemic highlight from Florence + The Machine’s latest album Dance Fever, “Dream Girl Evil” sounds like the artist’s own twisted take on penning a huge, Rolling Stones-style rock stormer. With tongue firmly in cheek, the song explores the double standards that women are subjected to by society, presenting Florence as an angel and devil at the same time.
As Florence Welch explained to the New York Times, the lockdown-penned album is named after choreomania — a strange phenomenon where hundreds of people between the 14th and 17th centuries literally danced themselves to death in massive, spontaneously formed groups. While isolating at her South London house, the singer dined out on horror films to further inform the menacing undertones of Dance Fever, and also got into Yellowjackets. The U.S. thriller is set in the aftermath of a plane crash involving a high school soccer team, and according to Welch, it inspired “Dream Girl Evil” specifically.
“Yellowjackets appeals to me because of my fascination with all things culty, but also it portrays the violence of the hormonal shift of girlhood so well. I think there’s something about being a young woman that feels very murderous,” she explained. “That’s what I was trying to get with a song like ‘Dream Girl Evil.’ It can be dangerous for people to think you’re incredibly nice. When you get, ‘You’re an angel,’ that seems like such a high place to fall from. When I see messy or violent or terribly behaved women, especially young women, there’s a liberation. To not have to try and survive by being good.”
Elsewhere, she also revealed that fellow musician Phoebe Bridgers introduced her to the writing of Carmen Maria Machado, and her bewitching horror-tinged fairytales about flawed women and terrifying visions.
See the lyrics to “Dream Girl Evil” in full, below.
“Dream Girl Evil”
Well, did you miss me?
Walk on water just to kiss me?
Oh, come and get me
Drag me out, destroy me
I've been expecting you, I'm ready
Deliver me that bad news, baby
Am I your dream girl?
You think of me in bed
But you could never hold me
And like me better in your head
Make me evil
Then I'm an angel instead
At least you'll sanctify me when I'm dead
Dream girl evil
Dream girl еvil
Dream girl evil
Dream girl еvil
Well, did I disappoint you?
Did mommy make you sad?
Do I just remind you
Of every girl that made you mad?
Make me perfect, make me your fantasy
You know I deserve it
Well, take it out on me
Am I your dream girl?
You think of me in bed
But you could never hold me
You like me better in your head
Make me evil
Then I'm an angel instead
At least you'll sanctify me when I'm dead
Dream girl evil
Dream girl evil
Dream girl evil
Dream girl evil
Watch me shimmer (Shimmer)
A projection of your mother (Mother)
But don't come cryin' (Cry)
I am nobody's moral center (Center)
It cannot hold
It cannot hold
It cannot hold
It cannot hold
It cannot hold
It cannot hold
It cannot hold
It cannot hold
It cannot hold (Dream girl)
It cannot hold (Evil)
It cannot hold (Dream girl)
It cannot hold (Evil)
It cannot hold (Dream girl)
It cannot hold (Evil)
It cannot hold (Dream girl)
It cannot hold (Evil)
