Chvrches - Every Open Eye

Following an album as acclaimed as Chvrches’ debut, 2013’s The Bones of What You Believe was never going to be an easy feat, but without a doubt the Scottish three piece have bested themselves a thousand times over on their new effort. Every Open Eyefuses pop with delicate electronica as its predecessor did, but with heightened strength, lyrically, thematically and musically. A sense of aggression can be felt in tracks like Empty Threat and Leave A Trace, front woman Lauren Mayberry channelling the emotion of constantly tackling Twitter trolls and online misogynists, which she’s been in the news for regularly over recent months. Leave A Trace, the album’s lead single, is an energetic dance anthem on the surface but lyrically it’s raw and emotive. Mayberry sings “I will show restraint/Just like we said we should… You think I’ll apologise for things I left behind but you got it wrong”. Elsewhere the tone is lowered but the depth remains, like on closing track Afterglow, a simple but beautiful piece that highlights Mayberry’s phenomenal vocal capabilities. To summarise, Chvrches are real mad about stuff, and they’ve refined and exploited that anger to craft an intricately divine new record. You’d be stupid not to buy it.