CHVRCHES is a Scottish
Synth-Pop trio. The members consist of Lauren Mayberry (lead vocals, additional synthesizers), Iain Cook (synthesizers, guitar, bass, additional vocals) and Martin Doherty (synthesizers, samplers, additional vocals, and occasional lead vocals).
CHVRCHES discography
- Recover EP (2013)
- Gun EP (2013)
- EP (2013; Japan only)
- The Bones of What You Believe (2013)
Singles: "Lies" (2012; 2013 [re-recorded version]), "The Mother We Share" (2012), "Recover" (2013), "Gun" (2013), "We Sink" (2014), "Under the Tide" (2014)
- "Dead Air" (2014, for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1)
- "Get Away" (2014)
- Every Open Eye (2015)
Singles: "Leave a Trace" (2015), "Never Ending Circles" (2015), "Clearest Blue" (2015), "Empty Threat" (2015)
- "Warning Call" (2016, for Mirror's Edge: Catalyst)
- Love Is Dead (2018)
Singles: "Get Out" (2018), "My Enemy" (2018), "Miracle" (2018)
"The Tropes We Share"
- A Day in the Limelight/Step Up to the Microphone: Martin Doherty performs on "ZVVL", "Under the Tide" and "You Caught the Light".
- On Every Open Eye, he is the lead singer on "High Enough to Carry You Over". It's Sophisti-Pop style fits his voice extremely well.
- Album Title Drop: A semi-example; the title's dropped in the bonus track "Strong Hand," rather than the album proper. "Give me the bones of what you believe / Maybe they'll save you from me..."
- "Clearest Blue" drops Every Open Eye, although it comes nearly again in a mention of "Open your eyes" in "High Enough to Carry You Over".
- Alternative Dance
- Animated Music Video:
- "Under The Tide", although shots of Martin singing are sprinkled throughout.
- The Jamie McKelvie-directed "Bury It" with Hayley Williams. The four are featured flying around and playing with telekinesis.
- Boléro Effect: "Tether".
- The Cameo: Hayley Williams pops up on an remixed version of "Bury It".
- Cover Version: "I Would Die 4 U", stylised as "I Would Die 4 V", "It's Not Right But It's Okay" and "Bela Lugosi's Dead".
- Downer Ending: On first listen, "Under the Tide" seems to be about a couple working through a failed relationship. However, in an interview with the lead singer, the band revealed it was written for a friend with terminal illness who recently passed. This information casts the song in a new, more depressing light.
- Fading into the Next Song: "Night Sky" —> "Science/Visions" on The Bones of What You Believe, and "ii" —> "Wonderland" on Love is Dead.
- Fly Or Die: This happens to Martin when the gang tries out their telekinetic powers on themselves in the music video for ''Bury It."
- Genre Shift: "ZVVL" and the two remixes of "Recover" sound very much out of place on Recover EP.
- Genre Throwback: To 1980s synthpop.
- Gratuitous Panning: On "The Mother We Share", the opening "Oh ah oh oh oh ah" vocals repeatedly bounce back and forth between the left and right channels.
- Last Note Nightmare: "We Sink" ends with some weird digital gurgling, which sound like the bottom of the sea.
- Idiosyncratic Album Theming: Both of their first two albums have an Album Title Drop, but Love is Dead broke the chain. There's a subtler one as well: their first album has a song called "Lies", the second references "Lies" in "Never Ending Circles", and the third references "Never Ending Circles" in "Miracle".
- Idiosyncratic Cover Art: The cover of Recover EP shows a symbol with three V shapes on it. The cover of "Gun' shows a symbol with three circles. The cover of The Bones of What You Believe combines both symbols.
- Every Open Eye dropped that design, this time focusing on pictures of flowers with mosaic-like squares put over them.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: "ii"
- Indie Pop
- Lyrical Cold Open: "Recover", "ZVVL", "Tether", "Night Sky", "Strong Hand" and "Broken Bones".
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Gun" has rather violent lyrics for an upbeat electro-rock song.
- As is "By the Throat".
- Most of their music could count.
- Non-Appearing Title: "ZVVL".
- Not Christian Rock: Despite the name, they're not a Christian band. They chose the name because it "sounded cool".
- Older Than She Looks: Lauren is 29 but looks (and sounds) much younger.
- Perky Goth: The video for "Empty Threat" is about a group of goth teens passing time with some underage drinking and smoking before heading to the waterpark and having some fun. Lauren herself was a Perky Goth as a teenager and still dresses in all black or black and white when she can.
- Precision F-Strike: "The Mother We Share" and "We Sink".
- Religion Rant Song: "Deliverance" can be interpreted this way.
- Retraux: Their songs sound like they came out of the 1980s.
- Shout-Out:
- Surreal Music Video: "Gun".
- Synth-Pop
- Two Guys and a Girl
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: They're named this way so they could be easier to Google.
