I decided to break from the pattern that’s been dictated from the first two album reviews and cover an album that has zero ties to hip-hop. CHVRCHES are a trio hailing from Glasgow, Scotland who specialize in pretty, off-kilter synth pop. In a lot of ways, they sound like a stripped-down, female-fronted Passion Pit (or does that mean they just sound like Passion Pit?). Two of the members, the ones that aren’t the lead singer, have been in somewhat notable bands previously. The guitarist was a member of the Scottish band Aereogramme, who I know almost nothing about. The other was a member of post-punk band the Twilight Sad, who I’m really only familiar with because of the grandness of their most famous song (“Cold Days from the Birdhouse”). None of this really matters, however, since CHVRCHES sounds almost nothing like either of those bands.
Lauren Mayberry, the lead singer of CHVRCHES, is a huge part of what separates CHVRCHES from the innumerable other synth poppy bands vying for attention. Her voice is clear, forward in the mix, and just so appealing in a way I can’t put my finger on. The other two band members are trying their best to make her the focal point and build compositions around her, and this tactic works wonderfully in the context of the album.
For an indie-rock purist, this type of music can be difficult to decipher; it’s surgically clean, hugely melodic and incredibly earnest. But CHVRCHES find a way to turn these elements into their largest strengths. Take “The Mother We Share,” the band’s first single and the leadoff song on the album. Although its title is a clear reference to the Knife (“We Share Our Mother’s Health”), whom they share a few clear ties with (namely a love of synth melodies), there is none of the rickety, queasy nightmare music that the Knife perfected with their 2006 album Silent Shout. Instead, after a chopped vocal starts the song, Mayberry glides beautifully through the first verse into the chorus. And oh what a chorus it is. Mayberry declines to force the song into the rafters with her vocals, instead opting to allow the swelling synths backing her up to carry the song into arena-rock territory. It’s possible that it’s the most instantly likeable part of the album, which is saying something when every song has its own earworm ready melody.
Four or five of the songs on the album, “The Mother We Share” included, could easily be radio singles. Take “Gun,” the third song on the album, and probably my personal favourite. Once again, it has an arena ready chorus; with chiming synths urging Mayberry along as she insists “there is no place for promises here.” Or take “Recover” with its candy-coated arpeggios, artificial handclaps and Mayberry’s breathy cadence suggesting Purity Ring if Purity Ring sang about broken relationships instead of zombies and surgery. This isn’t to say that CHVRCHES don’t deal with serious or slightly uncomfortable topics, however. Just looking at song titles from the album show some of the themes: “Gun,” “Tether,” “Under the Tide,” and “By the Throat” all project some sort of eerie imagery. Mostly these are metaphors for the crumbling relationships and emotions that Mayberry sings about. She is able to be alternately threatening and vulnerable at will, sometimes within the same song.
As I mentioned before, CHVRCHES shares very little with the two previous bands of the members. CHVRCHES songs will be played in movie trailers, in commercials. I have this image of all Scottish bands being comprised of a lot of people in black with many swirling guitars, trying their best to recreate the gloomy weather through music. And this rings true in many cases. However, there are nearly no guitars on The Bones of What You Believe, let alone guitar feedback. CHVRCHES deal with sadness, sure, but they do it through imagery and lyrics rather than musical textures. In a way though, this makes sense, because as with everything, Scotland’s sad and stormy indie rock scene needed to evolve and CHVRCHES seem to be poised to survive the natural selection. They’ve stormed through the gate in a stunning fashion with The Bones of What You Believe and hopefully they can continue in the future.
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