Chvrches- Screen Violence 4/5
Chvrches fourth studio album ‘Screen violence’ is an ode to the horror film genre. It’s a hard concept to miss with the album title, Slasher film aesthetic cover; a hand grasping on screen under a blood coloured filter and references to horror film such as Nightmare on Elm Street littered throughout lyrics.
Despite the horror theme Chvrches haven’t ventured from their Synth-pop style/ Indietronica sound. The album opens with the cinematic ‘Asking for a friend’ showcasing some of singer’s Lauren Mayberry’s most brutally honest lyrics; “I cheated and I lied/ but I meant it when I cried.”
Lead single ‘He said She said’ tackles gendered expectations. The song cleverly uses auto-tune to replicate two different voices also using echoes to replicate voices in the head.
The rhythmic bass on ‘California’ evokes a hazy image of a Californian dream. The illusion shattered with Mayberry’s melancholic lyrics and sage advice: “No one ever tells ya/ There’s freedom in failure.”
‘How not to drown’ is a stand-out track, not only for its special guest appearance of The Cure’s Robert Smith but for its haunting, urgency.
‘Final Girl’ sounds like its straight out of a horror film with its creepy synth melody with the lyrics dealing with clichés found in horror films : In the final scene/There’s a final girl/ And you know she should be screaming now.”
The album finishes with the poignant ‘Better If You don’t’ which unusually for Chvrches is a guitar led track. Instrumentalist Martin Doherty, wrote on Twitter about the track: “I wrote the demo on a rainy day in Los Angeles. I was missing Glasgow. Then Lauren came in with lyrics and I missed Glasgow even more.”
Slotting perfectly into Chvrches’ discography ‘Screen Violence’ is a captivating thematic album which gets better and more infectious with each listen.
Lucette Wood 