For the second track release from their next album Chvrches have brought out the big guns – this five-minute epic is their most substantial work in a few years and also features goth-pop living legend Robert Smith.
As readers will know, Smith does not offer his services to just anyone (although he has previously collaborated in recent years with The Twilight Sad and Crystal Castles) but even without his guest vocals this is a marvellously crafted and immersive track. The sound slightly more traditional than previous offerings and probably closer to The Sad, Garbage and 80s fare such as The Psychedelic Furs and even Simple Minds (no bad thing).
Lauren Mayberry’s penetrating vocals (still recognisably Scottish) permeate the track (“I wasn’t dead when you found me”) before Smith comes in for the second verse, sounding like a sympathetic friend (“the first time I knew they were out for blood…”). The “Watch as they pull me down” refrain manages to be both chilling and celebratory, something which is so hard to accomplish.
The overall effect is a melding of talent which is impressive, memorable and further explores Mayberry’s lyrical themes of suffocation, sublimation and loss of control.