Florence Welch was "obsessed with drowning" when she made her new album.

The Florence + the Machine singer became captivated by the symbolism of immersion in water when writing 'Ceremonials', which she says stems from the first time she was in love.

She said: "I was obsessed with drowning. It's about succumbing and being completely overwhelmed by something that's bigger than everything.

"I think it comes from being in love for the first time. Like totally and utterly in love. Like first, 17 year old love. I remember falling in love with this boy and having the first glimpse he might like me too.

"I had to go on a family holiday for two weeks. I spent the entire time sat at the bottom of the swimming pool screaming at the top of my voice. I just wanted to be somewhere that completely encapsulated me, where I could just thrash and scream."

One of the tracks on the album, 'What the Water Gave Me' re-tells the story of writer Virginia Woolf's suicide in 1941, by weighing her pockets with stones and walking into a river.

Explaining the song, Florence added to NME magazine: "It's so powerful, that thing of weighing yourself down with stones. It's idyllic in one way and horrifying in another.

"That's the thing about drowning, it's not violent in a way that some other ways of dying are. It's like letting something wash over you. I think there's romance in it."

'Ceremonials' is released on October 28.