Scottish trio CHVRCHES has been very busy this year. They made it to the top 5 on BBC’s list of new music talents of 2013, released the ”The Recover EP” in March, played a fair amount of summer festival gigs followed by a US tour, and are currently celebrating the release of The Bones Of What You Believe, their awaited debut album which is out this week on Glassnote.
The band, consisting of vocalist Lauren Mayberry, guitar player Iain Cook and synth man Martin Doherty, started recording in a Glasgow basement about two years ago after Cook and Doherty had left their previous band commitments to start afresh.
BBC describes their music as ”electro-pop that shimmers only when the tears are washed from its speaker cones”. Although the sound is rather pure pop, like a synth version of Robyn, CHVRCHES do channel a rather dark aura.
On ”Lies”, one of the album’s best tracks, the trio proves the perfection of the marriage between Mayberry’s soft voice, the fresh lyrics and the heavy synth sound. ”The Mother We Share” may be the album’s most commercial yet memorable track, “You Caught The Light” has a slight 80s power ballad touch whereas “The Gun” is a manifestation to empowerment and self-respect.
All in all a solid consistent album which certainly lives up to the expectations following the hype around CHVRCHES. CHVRCHES may produce music which falls more under the pop than indie category, but if the band’s success continues, this album might do pretty well on a big stage too. Given the many sold out dates on their European tour this fall, something tells me, this might be the last chance to see them play a club gig.