Florence and the Machine release One of the Greats as album preview

Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine released a new single, "One of the Greats," on Monday as the second preview from the band's sixth album, Everybody Scream, due October 31. The simmering, near eight minute track was unveiled alongside a visualizer directed by Autumn de Wilde and follows last month's release of the album's title song.

Welch said she wrote "One of the Greats" in one take with IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen, who supplied the riff while she sang directly from the page. Aaron Dessner of The National and Big Red Machine later helped shape the arrangement, Welch said, taking the performance to what she called "a truly transcendent place." The song grapples with questions about legacy and the personal cost of ambition, with Welch singing lines such as "It must be nice to be a man and make boring music just because you can," and reflecting on being "ridiculed and derided for the bigness of my expression" early in her career.

The accompanying video, described in reports as a visualizer, shows Welch in the back of a car wearing a suit and twirling an unlit cigar, imagery some outlets interpreted as a commentary on gendered power. Reviews have been favorable in early...