Sometimes you just need some sincere and poignant music to clarify certain things, or at least to get you excited enough to ignore the miserable rain pelting onto the vast windows of a city bound train.
And far out, from the moment those sharp, affecting synth ripples tantalise my eardrums, my whole body is literally jumping for joy.
CHVRCHES, you can stand up with vigour and pride.
“Throw me no more bones and I will tell you no lies / this time at least I am not so cold,” – the opening line of Never Ending Circles. This introduction to their sophomore album Every Open Eye exceeds more than just the relationship context it was written in.
In a world where the norm is generic, polished beats with clichéd lyrical cue cards plucked straight from the minds of the mundane cash cows, this Scottish trio have literally bypassed the cattle and churned new life into the electro-pop scene.
One of the main reasons that make Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty so captivating is their uncanny ability to dance the fine line between basic and understated production, as well as maintaining a firm grip on their origins and identity as non-American humans.
This album in particular is a wonderful collection of songs that, though at times do feel like a completely basic, home-computer type of project, have a charming, jovial resilience that gives them vibrancy and an infectious character.
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Leading singles Leave A Trace and Clearest Blue already speak for themselves, containing humming builds that give you that awkward tingly-inside kinda-feeling because it’s just so damn good.
Seventh track Empty Threat will cause a fair tantrum if it’s not chosen as a future single. It’s catchy hook, plucky sounds and shimmering underlay make for yet another delicious slice of resilient electro-pop goodness. Keep You On My Side is an ode to the glitches of the 80s and Playing Dead and Bury It hold enough intensity to keep you moving and yearning for more.
The only low points, if you can call them that, is the Martin Doherty-show High Enough To Carry You Over which doesn’t seem to add or detract from the overall sound, and Keep Them Gold with rejected-pop-punk sounding lyrics.
Forget saturated, generic beats. Just throw them all out of the window and don’t even think about collecting their polished pieces off the ground.
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Every Open Eye is out now via Liberator Music/Goodbye Records
Watch: CHVRCHES – Leave a Trace
