How pathetically stupid can people be? The release of Chvrchs’ second album has been greeted by an especially tiresome sexism furore, with a bunch of internet detractors branding – with a crassness which might described as typical – the group’s front woman, Lauren Mayberry, a “slut”. Her transgression, apparently, was to appear sans band-mates in the video for the single ‘Leave A Trace’, her hair slicked back in a so called “wet look”.
It isn’t the first time that Chvrches have been a target for buffoons, a tumult of internet hate having been directed at Mayberry – found guilty, it seems, of being a confident, articulate woman fronting a successful electro-rock troupe. Such are the sort of people the web was invented to cut down. Thankfully, discerning music fans see things differently: the band’s debut album The Bones of What You Believe rose to a remarkable No.12 in the Billboard Charts, as well as going Gold in the UK.
No wonder a powerful seam of self-belief informs every note of the follow-up, Every Open Eye, an album that is even more fully realised and confident than Chvrches 2013 debut. Fusing the sassy with the sad, the aforementioned ‘Leave A Trace’ in particular speaks to the Glaswegians’ strengths, Mayberry delivering deeply personal lyrics in impressively downbeat fashion, as grooves flutter and coo in the background.
Elsewhere, they double down on the melancholy, while always taking care to
leaven the mix with brisk beats and a steady provisioning of hooks and melodies. This, it turns out, is music of great finesse. I have seen Mayberry’s vocals dismissed as watery and undercooked, but nothing could be further from the truth. There is a tremulous passion in her delivery which is utterly convincing emotionally, as demonstrated by the swooning ‘Never Ending Circles’ and the ominous ‘Clearest Blue’. All told, Chvrches have delivered a record worthy of the buzz – stick that in your exhaust pipe, haters.