
Chvrches – Screen Violence
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- Release details
- Tracklist
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Chvrches are back. The Scottish electropop heroes from Glasgow are releasing their new, fourth longplayer in 2021: "Screen Violence" is the follow-up to 2018's "Love Is Dead".
The album title was originally once intended as a name for the band, back in 2011 when their story began. A decade later, and in a time where the reality of screen violence is more relevant than ever, where one experiences a world of trauma as if it were another, Chvrches have revived the term for their upcoming album title. With the theme of screen violence in three main forms - on screen, from screens and through screens - the album touches on feelings of loneliness, disillusionment, fear, heartbreak and regret.
Singer Lauren Mayberry explains, "I think for me it was helpful to go into the process with the idea that I could write something almost escapist. That felt very liberating at first, to have concepts and stories to weave your own feelings and experiences through, but in the end all the lyrics were definitely still personal."
Martin Doherty (synthesizer, sampler, vocals) added: "For me the screen aspect was a bit more literal. When we made the record, it was like half of our lives were lived through screens. What started as a concept was now a lifeline."
So work on "Screen Violence" began in 2020 during the Corona pandemic. Through video calls and audio sharing programs, the band first exchanged ideas before heading to various studios in Glasgow and Los Angeles, where Chvrches eventually recorded ten songs. This includes the album's first single, the song "How To Not Drown", featuring Robert Smith of The Cure. The industrial rock-inspired single, with the band's signature electro-pop flair and featuring one of their musical heroes, explores the concept of staying conscious while drowning.
With "He Said She Said", the band released another song from the new album back in April. The track was the first she wrote as part of the project. It was inspired by Mayberry's experiences with sexism, which she described as her "way of getting even with things she had accepted that she knew she shouldn't have." "Being a woman is fucking exhausting and it felt better to shout it into a pop song than to shout it into the void," Mayberry said.
Chvrches celebrate their tenth band birthday in 2021. The band, consisting of singer Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty, formed in Glasgow in 2011. The members met at university. With their mix of electro-pop, indietronic and synth pop they already celebrated some successes. Their previous albums "The Bones of What You Believe" (2013), "Every Open Eye" (2015) and "Love Is Dead" (2018) reached the top 10 of the charts in the UK.
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A1 Asking For A Friend
A2 He Said She Said
A3 California
A4 Violent Delights
A5 How Not To Drown
B1 Final Girl
B2 Good Girls
B3 Lullabies
B4 Nightmares
B5 Better If You Don'T