Florence and the Machine just revealed the artwork for the band’s upcoming album, Everybody Scream, and it’s unflinchingly provocative.
A fish-eye lens captures lead singer Florence Welch, reclined in a chair with her legs spread, flashing her inner thighs as her dress covers anything too risqué.
This is undoubtedly the most skin we’ve seen from the Howl hitmaker, well, ever.
In isolation, it could be a hint that Florence, 38, is simply embracing her sexier side for her seventh studio album, but in the context of the music industry as a whole, it might just be a sign she’s joining a pop girlie revolution.
A sexy album cover is nothing new; however, recent releases have left fans (and conservative adults) clutching their pearls.
It seems, despite the prevalence of this kind of cover art across the decades – from John Lennon to The Strokes – we’ve all gone shy.
Have pop stars always been sexy?
When discussing boundary-pushing artwork, it’s impossible not to mention Madonna, the Queen of Pop and a master of ruffling feathers.
2008’s Hard Candy sees her legs wide in a black bodysuit, Like a Prayer (1989) had a flash of stomach, and who could forget the silken sheets of Material Girl, with one leg carefully slipping out.
Madonna has always been a disruptive presence, but her erotic covers are something of a rarity in pop queen discographies.
Think of Britney Spears; while her performances might be pulse-racing, and she’s known to rock a bikini or two, her actual album artwork tends to err on the safe side.
Her most revealing artwork was 2001’s Britney (with the Toxic hitmaker leaning forward with her top falling off her shoulders) until 2020 when Glory was issued a writhing beach picture with chains around her.
The 00s did see a sudden boom in raunchy covers, with Shakira, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and Gwen Stefani getting suggestive.
Christina Aguilera springs to mind as a seductive star, and while her covers lean this way, only 2002’s Stripped can truly be considered risque until nude Venus-inspired Lotus in 2012.
While these stars may have been bikini-clad on stage and in bedazzled skin-coloured bodysuits for music videos, their actual artwork rarely ventured into the extreme.
Who had the raunchiest album covers?
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the majority of outright nude covers belong to male artists, usually not choosing to feature themselves.
Rolling Stone’s list of the 20 dirtiest album covers of all time (published in 2019) includes only five with the artist pictured; one of which is a shirtless D’Angelo, and the other is Christina Amphlett in a fishnet dress.
Prince and John Lennon offer nude album covers; however, these radiate vulnerability rather than sex appeal. The former Beatle is, of course, joined by Yoko Ono – also naked – for their 1968 collaboration.
British punk rockers The Slits are the only female artists to go truly nude, coated in mud for their 1979 debut album Cut.
Again, rather than sex appeal, the album cover is one of power and daring – these aren’t seductive mud-covered women but powerful, challenging anyone who dares objectify them.
On the flip side, for male artists with models on the front, seduction was available by the bucket load – specifically the whipped cream bucket when it came to trumpeteer Herb Alpert’s 1965 album,
Jimi Hendrix paraded 19 naked women for Electric Ladyland (later censored) while Roxy Music opted for just two, gracefully covering anything too eyebrow-raising.
The Pixies, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Crows, Basement Jaxx, Pulp, and The Strokes all flashed various naked women throughout their albums.
While these may have caused a stir at the time, some are now regarded as groundbreaking albums (The Strokes’ Is This It and This Is Hardcore from Pulp).
Why are pop girlies going for such erotic artwork now?
So if a sexy album cover is par for the course, why is it so shocking when Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, or Florence Welch do it?
These women are intentionally throwing their sexuality in the face of the rising purity culture prevalent in the media right now.
Rightfully so, the objectification of women fell away from album covers in the 2010s, and while the male bands stopped the raunchy artwork, the pop queens didn’t quite take up the mantel.
As with their 90s and 00s counterparts, the sexy popstar artwork falls into two categories: sexy outfit but non-seductive pose or seductive pose but fully clothed or hidden.
For example, Ariana Grande donned bunny ears and a mask, but looks directly at the camera in Dangerous Woman, compared to Yours Truly, which sees her tilt her head back, revealing her shoulders, although her outfit is not visible.
Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream stands out as an outlier here with the star lying naked and wrapped in clouds. This is the sensuality that modern pop stars are bringing.
We’ve been living in a drought when it comes to sex on show, with the likes of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe regularly being described as ‘hot but sexless’.
Purity culture is on the rise, hand in hand with incel groups, as Gen-Z gets squeamish about seeing intimacy on screen.
The charts are reacting to this with the likes of indie guitar music back on the rise; Alex Warren, Ed Sheeran, Sam Ryder, and Tom Grennan all offering this solo male guitarist
Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend may have caused a stir with her hair-pulling antics, but her variant covers offer far more lingerie-filled options.
Subversive or just submissive, she forced us to question at what point a woman is in control of her sexuality.
Taylor Swift took things further, giving us her first-ever seductive cover for Life of a Showgirl, with a sexy photoshoot and alternative artworks following suit.
This was an unapologetic departure from the Taylor we have known, who has been vocal in the past about not presenting herself as a sex symbol.
Now, the tide has turned, and in the face of rising conservative values, it is almost an act of punk rebellion for someone known for her demure aesthetic to delve into soft eroticism.
Florence Welch paints a similar picture to Taylor, transforming from a gentle ethereal forest witch into a woman in control of her sexuality, and flaunting it.
Their use of lingerie and suggestive poses takes the path laid by the likes of Madonna and dares us to be less puritanical and embrace the hedonism lying beneath.
This is an artistic reckoning for those who plea ‘think of the children’ whenever a popstar shows skin. 90s raunch is back, but this time, the pop queens are leading the charge.
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