Chvrches (2018)

One Liner: Excellent electronic dance pop from Scotland

Wikipedia Genre: Synth-pop, indietronica, indie pop
Home: Glasgow, Scotland

Poster Position: 3
Day: Saturday at 6:30
Both Weekends.

Thoughts: Music fandom is frequently a set of weird choices that are potentially hard to defend.  Why do I hate Tory Lanez but like Khalid?  Why do I generally dislike emo rock and yet love My Chemical Romance?  Why have I always loved Bjork?  I dunno.  And so a similar question is posed here.  If you have been following these posts, you'll know that, in general terms, I'm not in love with most of the electronic stuff on this poster.  Especially not electronic pop.  I'm always going to lean towards rock or rap or good country, versus the synth pop dreck that has infected popular music.  AND YET, I absolutely ride or die with this band.  

Why is that?  Is it Lauren Mayberry's steady and strong but vulnerably cute vocals?  Is it the structure of the tunes, that generally allows for a build up and release in each song (that is much more subtle than the usual EDM drop move)?  Is it some remaining infatuation with the 1980's version of Madonna?  Or 80's music in general?  Is it my (maybe) Scotch-Irish-English blood connecting with the accent of my people?  I dunno, but gimme all of this and more.

The band was last here in 2014, and they kicked out the jam.  Wikipedia says that they were all members of different bands in the past, and that Mayberry had actually finished up a law degree and Masters in Journalism before she joined the band.  That seems like a lot of wasted time and work to me, but I guess its not a waste to end up in a popular band.

The first album is 2013's The Bones of What You Believe, which was the only album out there the last time they came to the Fest.  It is my favorite of their three discs.  Album opener, "The Mother We Share" is the jam, yo.  Get your lighters up and do a slow grind.

Such a fantastic little eighties-retro mash with today's electronic sound.  Mayberry has such a great, distinctive voice, and her lyrics stick in my head like very little I have heard in the past while.  This whole album is top notch - I went so far as to - gasp! - purchase it after hearing it a few times, a rarity since discovering Spotify.

One of the reasons I found this band in the first place, even before they were slated to perform at ACL in 2014, was through Keith Law.  Law is a baseball columnist for ESPN who also writes a lot about pop culture and music.  He did a top 100 songs of 2013 list and Spotify playlist that is really well curated (peep this: http://meadowparty.com/blog/2013/12/18/top-100-songs-of-2013/) and he has a handful of Chvrches songs tucked in there.  My second favorite is Gun:

I think these tunes just strike a chord with me - my 80's upbringing and some new adventurous twists on combining rock guitar with electronic beats.  Add a nice voice and I'm on board.  

The other reason that I had originally tried this band out was Rolling Stone, who loved their excellent cover of Whitney Houston's Its Not Right But Its OK:

Which is awesome.  Perfect cover for them to tackle.  They add an odd sparkle to what is otherwise a sad song.

Their second album was released in 2016, Every Open Eye.  Its not as excellent as the first album, but still damn good.  My favorite tune from the album is somehow not the top track (inconceivable!), but I'll just give you both.  My favorite, "Clearest Blue" has a part that kicks into a killer Depeche Mode-flavored breakdown right at 2:32, it makes me want to jump straight up into the sun to dance until my knees melt into oblivion.  If the whole crowd doesn't pogo their asses off right at that moment, I'm gonna be pissed.

Yes! Get some of that "Just Can't Get Enough" flavor!  I also like "Bury It," "Empty Threat," and the big hit from the album, "Leave a Trace," which has 45.6 million streams.

Another good tune, but it can't touch the energy of "Clearest Blue."  The songs definitely lose some of their luster when the male singer steps to the forefront.  "Follow You" is just less exciting.

Finally, the new album.  2018's Love is Dead.  More of the same stuff - sticking with the same formula, and I still dig it.  Two big songs on here so far, with "Miracle" winning so far at 18.1 million streams.  That being said, I want "Get Out" to win (16.2 million streams so far).

I want to loudly sing along to that as I Molly Ringwald kick dance.  "Good intentions, never good enough!"  Feels powerful while still being sparkly.  "ii" sounds like a portion of an old Midnight Oil song.  By my estimation, I am likely the only American who is obsessed enough with their catalog to recall the sounds of non-Blue Sky Mine or Beds Are Burning tracks...

Easy pick for me, them over stupid San Holo or Disturbed.  I fear that my buddy might want to see Disturbed, and at that time of night reconnecting isn't easy.  We'll see.