It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.
When newcomers CHVRCHES unleashed “The Mother We Share” onto the Internet nearly a year ago, they were merely another named dropped into the ever-spanning abyss of female-fronted synthpop acts. Like Purity Ring, Icona Pop, Charli XCX, and countless, innumerable others before them, CHVRCHES became buzz-worthy overnight.
But this obviously comes as no surprise: for the last year and a half, music blogs — at least the “hip” and “popular” ones — have been both fascinated with and dominated by these female pop singers. Throw in a nod to The Knife here, a mention of Robyn there, and presto! you have an article from half of the music sources on the Internet. Now, don’t get me wrong — I don’t have a problem with great music of (nearly) any genre. But when one category of music becomes so “trendy” that we bloggers begin to put a crap-ton of faith and fandom into any similarly-styled artist with one or two tracks to their name… well that’s just silly.
CHVRCHES notched their second track this spring when they released “Recover.” That’s when I slipped; that’s when I knew it was all over for me.
However, sometimes minor slip-ups can lead to great discoveries, and CHVRCHES’s debut, The Bones of What You Believe, is truly one of them. The first half of the record contains the majority of the pre-album tracks, and unsurprisingly it’s an absolute gold mine. Piling pop-sterpieces “The Mother We Share,” “We Sink,” “Gun,” and “Lies” into the first five songs is equivalent to stepping up to the plate five times and hitting four home runs (the last time that happened, Mike Cameron was playing for the Seattle Mariners).
It’s simply astounding the way the spastic synths work with the epic choruses and catchy verses to build up the bulk of side-A. But if it’s the synth-strumentation that brought you to CHVRCHES, it’ll be Mayberry’s vocals that keep you there. Sure, she may sound cute, but under her sugar-coated lines lie lyrics that pack a punch. Her words are threatening, deceitful, and just downright hurtful; her heart is broken and the only way to fix it is to stomp yours to shit. The strangest and most impressive part, however, is that thanks to the first half’s upbeat and anthemic feel you can’t help but joyfully sing along.
By the time the second side of Bones hits, everyone and everything is covered in a big goop of glory; loads have been blown. And unfortunately, the latter half of Bones suffers under the enormous standards set by the first. Tracks like “Night Sky” and “Science/Visions” are by no means bad songs, they just aren’t as good as those that preceded it. “Recover” and “Lungs,” with their ever-pulsing and recoiling synths, are the lit torch of the second half. Yet even they begin to crumble under the heavy lyrical themes, which really weigh down Bones‘ last few tracks.
And I can’t help but think that dropping a track or two from the second half of Bones‘ bulky 48-minute frame would make this album a near perfect debut. But complaining about how nearly perfect an album with 7 or 8 potential big singles is is stupid and misses the point. For the most part, The Bones of What You Believe is an anthemic, non-stop dance party that (if you opt to give in) won’t leave your ears’ drums for months. This is delectable and smart pop music made to be ingested in massive quantities by the masses. And hell yes for that.
The Bones of What You Believe