Howl

The reading list of Florence Welch, the vocalist and main person of Florence + the Machine, is evidently extensive and morbid. This song, which started of being originally about a werewolf before developing into a ditty about extremely passionate love, was clearly influenced by the gothic horror stories she read as a child. Welch told The Scotsman January 25, 2009: "When I was a kid, I was physically afraid of monsters and ghosts, vampires and werewolves. It was a scary couple of years and I don't know if I am over it yet. I've toned it down but I still have to wake up at night and turn the light on. Now I translate it into songs and try to become the werewolf."

Welch told the story behind the song on her website: "I was in a really intense emotional state for this one! I'd been so drunk and so badly behaved that I felt like a beast, I felt feral. I turned up to the studio wearing the same clothes from the night before and I was an emotional wreck. I was thinking about the extremes you go to when you're in love, the way it takes over, and how that then turns into wanting to rip and tear. Young love starts off so instant, but then you make mistakes, and it becomes sordid, sometimes. And dangerous. Then while we were in the studio, I got so over-involved with the idea of werewolves! I took this idea and ran with it, and all the ideas just came from Gothic horror: werewolves and wedding dresses, and licking beating hearts. It was cool, because it got me out of my bad place, and into a creative place. When I was singing the refrain and doing the piano part, I suddenly realised, 'At least something's come out of this.' It's a release, for me."

Welch says this song is very hard on her voice, telling Entertainment Weekly in 2012 that she had "gotten tired of singing" it.