It's dark, it's aggressive and it struck a chord. 

After four years of silence, Florence and the Machine released a short teaser video (directed by Tabitha Denholm and Vincent Haycock) for the title track "How Big How Blue How Beautiful." The song began soft and quaint with a slow, sweeping build-up of horns that felt like a grand welcoming down a path to their new home.

But what if they are creating the disaster within themselves?

Two days later, they kicked down the door and pulled us in with the lead single, "What Kind of Man," revealing a bold and candid Florence Welch. The video was again directed by Vincent Haycock, and my Welch/Haycock collaboration-loving heart was delightfully decimated. They had done it again.

“What Kind of Man” is a grievously genuine confessional about a daunting, whirlwind of a relationship with an indecisive man. Choreographed by Ryan Heffington, the video is a passionate and fierce display of oscillating emotions conveyed through movement; action and reaction.

To let me dangle at a cruel angle
Oh, my feet don't touch the floor

The swarming, the grabbing, the screaming and struggling, the impassioned reaching out and scrambling to reconnect culminating in a tender rejoining only to be followed by a violent thrusting away when the realization settles in that the one you’re embracing was the one who had tossed you to the wind not so long ago.

It’s an honest breakdown, a painful realization and a heavy yet poetic depiction of it all.

Though fiery and bold, it’s not accusatory. And in a world where we toss blame left and right, this is what I most admire about Ms. Welch and this track.

It’s not a “you did this to me,” or a “you said 'xyz' and ruined us."  It’s not blame and it’s not accusation. It’s a pause and reflect; a sincere question (What kind of man loves like this?) that beckons him to take a look within himself and the way he makes her, and others around him, feel. Feeling. That’s what resonates with people; that’s what burrows itself deep within our souls and resides for “twenty years.” That’s what makes it so damn hard to leave.

But we do.

xxChris