It was a highly tempting offer. But ultimately not quite tempting enough.

Such is the confession of Florence Welch, 25, the flame-haired siren who fronts Florence & the Machine.

About 18 months ago, when the Grammy Award-nominated Brit was in the early stages of prepping her eagerly anticipated second album, the idea of going to Los Angeles to work with some of the hottest writer/producers on the planet was briefly and tantalizingly dangled before her. She declines to reveal their names, but says the opportunity was one that held an instant attraction.

"I love Lady Gaga, and I love Katy Perry and R&B and rap music," Welch says, the words tumbling from her mouth in rapid succession-like an excited, albeit highly well-spoken teen. "I love big, American pop music. I'm a total sucker for it. So the label said, 'Do you want to go over to America to work in that scene?' And I was like, 'Yeah, OK. Maybe I could bring my own take on it.' It got put in the diary to go out for a week, to start writing the new record. And then the diary got sent to me and I looked at it and just went, 'No. No. No. No. No! I can't do that. This is too weird. I can't just suddenly leave behind everything that made [2009 debut album] 'Lungs.'"

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Not for the first time in her life, Florence Leontine Mary Welch -- born in South London in 1986 to Evelyn Welch, a professor, and Nick Welch, an advertising executive -- choose to follow her heart over her head; her natural instinct over cold-hearted commercialism. Not for the first time, it has paid off handsomely.

Titled "Ceremonials" and due Oct. 31 worldwide on Island Records/Universal (except for North America, where it will debut Nov. 1 on Universal Republic), Florence & the Machine's second studio set is a muscular, hugely ambitious and achingly beautiful work that takes its predecessor's sonic blueprint (soaring vocals, ethereal gospel choirs, mystical harps and pounding tribal drums) and fires it to the stars. Produced by Paul Epworth, currently riding high with his work on Adele's all-conquering "21" (XL Recordings/Columbia), the 12-track record could accurately be described as a more confident, bigger and better version of the celebrated Lungs.

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That set went on to sell 3.5 million units worldwide, according to Universal. Domestic sales stand at 738,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan, with the album's breakout track, "Dog Days Are Over," peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and racking up 1.8 million downloads. In the United Kingdom, Lungs won the 2010 BRIT Award for British album and has moved 1.4 million units, according to the Official Charts Co. Combined single sales in the United Kingdom total more than 1.2 million units.

As impressive as those numbers are, Universal is optimistic that "Ceremonials" will knock those achievements out of the park. "We've got incredibly high expectations," says Universal Republic president/CEO Monte Lipman, who calls the album one of the fourth quarter's key releases. "She can compete against anybody in the marketplace and that's the way we're treating this. We're giving it everything we've got."

Welch, fresh from a morning jog around her local London park that culminated in the singer pirouetting on a public bench to the delight of bemused onlookers ("I'm more of a balletic runner than athletic," she says with a giggle), offers a more modest assessment.

"I'm excited to play it live but I am nervous about what the reaction to the record is going to be," Welch says. "It's as if the scrapbook of "Lungs" has been given a beginning, middle and an end and made into a whole story. It's taken the sound that I found about halfway through making "Lungs" and really gone with it. I think I have taken it to the apex."

NEXT: The Making Of New Album 'Ceremonials'