Chvrches

There is always the worry that a baby band’s first album won’t live up to their hype. When they’re tottering like Bambi taking its first steps, so weak a gust of wind or a bad debut could knock them down, never to get back up again.
Well, thank God, Chvrches have decided to do us all a favour and live up to their hype. The Bones of What you Believe is chock full of polished-to-perfection electropop.
All the singles are present, along with ‘Lies’ and ‘The Mother We Share’ (which had a wee holiday on The Radio 1 A list). These tracks knocking around on the internet last year is what everyone got so excited about in the first place so it’s nice to see them make the debut cut.
The Bones of What You Believe was recorded in Cook’s living room. This band doesn’t need anyone breathing down their necks and clearly work best left to their own devices. It’s mixed by Rich Costey (Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine) who successfully added that squeaky clean sheen present throughout the record.
Second track ‘We Sink’, is so uplifting, it will be the soundtrack for an inspiring movie montage in the not so distant future. Along with being remixed by so and so.
‘Gun’ is an oxymoron of shimmery, happy go lucky synths and dark lyrics. The band have recently been subject to a horde of disgusting e-mails from fans, objectifying Mayberry and describing what they would like to do to her. Rightly so, an example was screen shot and posted on their Facebook page, telling fans to cut it out. Best hope the senders of these e-mails don’t succumb to Mayberry’s threats on Gun’s lyrics: “You have better run from me / With everything you owe / Cause I will come for you / With all that I have.”
‘Lies’ is everything you could want from an electropop band encapsulated in just over 3.5 minutes. The sultry booming synths are similar to Depeche Mode.
‘Recover’ is still as appealing and fresh as when it was first released.
The singles are certainly the strongest tracks and respectively make it engaging as a whole. However, there is a definite lull at points. ‘Lungs’ is basically Dislcosure on a comedown and ‘Night Sky’ is some nice background noise. Fear not, other tracks more than make up for these fillers.
Chvrches will go far. The notoriously hard to please Pitchfork are showering them in praise and decided to top it off by declaring ‘The Bones of What You Believe’ as Best New Music. With a massive tour of America and Europe on the cards, Chvrches will soon be no longer tottering through the forest making friends with little bunny rabbits but will be galloping. Like a stallion.