“Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + the Machine

“Dog Days Are Over” harps back to Florence and the Machine’s debut LP, “Lungs”. More specifically, this track was released through Iamsound Records, Moshi Moshi Records and Island Records as the project’s second single on 1 December 2008, thus also making it the sophomore track in the band’s discography overall. 

At the time it came out, the Machine consisted of Rob Ackroyd, Christopher Lloyd Hayden, Isabella Summers and Tom Monger, led by Florence Welch, and all of whom, except for Hayden, are still part of the band of this writing.

There’s also a demo of this song that can be found on the deluxe editions of “Lungs”. Beyond that, a remix and live rendition is also featured on the album’s bonus disc, which is titled “Between Two Lungs”.

A Late Blooming Hit

This song has a strange performance history, in that it didn’t chart particularly well, most notably reaching number 6 on the Irish Singles Chart and number 9 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs’ listing stateside. 

But as far as certifications go, the track has gone multi-platinum in both the US and UK, in addition currently enjoying septuple-platinum status in Australia. And those types of sales are usually reserved for songs that are also global chart toppers.

But to explain that anomaly, “Dog Days Are Over” didn’t really start to blow up until almost two years after its initial 2008 release, in September of 2010. This was after Florence + the Machine laid it down live at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. 

That was when the track first managed to appear on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 21. 

The band earned the right to lay this tune down at that globally-recognized venue because its video, which Georgie Greville directed, was nominated for five MTV VMAs that year. The video eventually took home the trophy in the category of Best Art Direction.

Some More Interesting Facts about “Dog Days Are Over”

With that said, here’s another interesting fact. It was another live performance of this song, as part of 2009/10 edition of Jools’ Annual Hootenanny.

Additionally, the track was featured on a UK advertisement for a TV airing of Slumdog Millionaire in late 2009 which led to it first charting in the United Kingdom in January of 2010, which is around the same time the song blew up stateside.

Also compelling to note is that later in 2010, the cast of Glee laid down their own rendition of “Dog Days Are Over”, which peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

More recently, i.e. circa this writing in mid-2023, this song was utilized by the ever-relevant Marvel Cinematic Universe by making the soundtrack of the long-awaited Guardians of the Galaxy 3.  Accordingly, Florence Welch actually filmed herself watching the movie for the first time, and when this track was rocked during the film’s post-credits, she was overcome with emotion.

The Composers and Producers

This song was written by Welch alongside the aforementioned Isabella Summers, who co-founded the band with Florence. 

Its producer is James Ellis Ford, whom they’ve collaborated with regularly throughout the years. Also to note, Welch has pointed out that this track was recorded at Isabella’s London-based studio using very-sparse instrumentation.

The Lyrics of “Dog Days Are Over”

Florence Welch got the title of this song from a billboard in London she used to pass regularly while riding her bike. 

As generally understood, “dog days” is a term used to encapsulate a troubling era in one’s life. But as Florence was knowledgeable of the term, “dog days” also has something to do with astronomy and more specifically a certain season when Sirius, aka the Dog Star, is peculiarly visible. 

Said visibility also marks the advent of time of year when the summer’s heat is at its peak in places like the UK, thus explaining the well-known phrase “the dog days of summer”. 

Also that time, as noted by Welch, animals become lazy and are not fully revived until after its passing. So with all of that in mind, the phrase “dog days are over” would connote the ending of a difficult period.

And so it is with the featured narrative. However, they do not simply revolve around the vocalist celebrating the conclusion of “the dog days” per se. Rather as illustrated, the person who is experiencing this favor, i.e. the subject of the lyrics, is so reluctant to receive “happiness” in her life that she actually flees from it.

So it would appear that Florence is depicting the type of person who has grown so accustomed to depression that she fights, presumably subconsciously, to maintain it. In other words, even though out of nowhere her “dog days are over”, the subject is adverse to actually enjoying this unexpected fortune, perhaps not genuinely believing in it to begin with.

“Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father
Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind
You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
‘Cause here they come”

But the choruses aren’t as easy to understand as the verses. For example, Welch’s confusingly-symbolic mention of “horses” somehow coming into the subject’s life upon the ending of her dog days has led to some colorful interpretations.

For instance, some analysts hold the position that this ‘coming of horses’ alludes to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, of Revelations fame, whose presence marks the advent of the end of the world.

Others believe that the mention of these animals, in context, actually serves as a reference to the adage ‘wild horses couldn’t drag me away’, pointing to a person having unwaveringly made up their mind, as it appears with the subject at hand.

And such bold arguments are made possible by the fact that the title of this track for instance is also a reference to astronomy and things of the such, i.e. the song being openly-interpretable to begin with.

The Bridge

But thankfully, the bridge can be interpreted as verifying that the premise of this song is indeed based on the subject experiencing a completely-unexpected bout of exceptional luck. That is if we go out on a limb a bit by assuming that in this particular passage, the vocalist is taking on the role or personifying the subject’s good fortune. 

Then, when you combine the lyrics of the bridge with the subject apparently being advised to flee from her established life in chorus, what Florence may be getting at is there being some types of favor which a person must be all-in in order to receive.  

“And I never wanted anything from you
Except everything you had
And what was left after that too, oh”

In other words, it’s as if the subject is fated to undergo a holistically-gratifying transformation at this very point in her life. But in order for her to truly capitalize on that favor, she has to be willing to leave behind ‘everything she had’, i.e. that being the price of the gift, her willingness to recognize and prioritize its value over everything else.

Are you confused about the above?

If you answered Yes, you are not alone. But to understand the above, one would have have to use their imagination and pretend that in that particular passage, i.e. the bridge, the vocalist is personifying the lady’s luck, not speaking as a third party per se. 

It’s like Florence is portraying the role of the lady’s luck in the bridge and telling her that in order to fully enjoy it, she must be all-in to receiving it. That would then explain why in the chorus she is also being told to leave her family behind. Like she has to receive the favor by faith, if you will.

But again, that’s just one way of trying to make comprehensive sense out of all that’s going down in this piece. By the looks of things Welch never offered a concise explanation of this song, and even the aforenoted bridge has been reasonably interpreted in a completely-different way. 

But so it can be when you’re dealing with the works of Florence + the Machine, an outfit that seems to have an affinity for including esoteric references in their songs.