However! Last Friday, the group’s frontwoman Lauren Mayberry released her debut solo album, ‘Vicious Creature’. I’ll almost certainly write about ‘Vicious Creature’ at some point too, but I don’t quite work on that quick of a turn-around to have a review out yet; instead, I decided that would be a fun and topical reason to go back and finish the Chvrches idea. So, please join me as I look back at their discography so far, and how I would construct a Greatest Hits album for the group.
If you want to listen along as you read, here’s a YouTube link to my final playlist, and here’s a Spotify one.
I’ve mentioned several times over the years here at Out of Left Field that I’m a big fan of the band Chvrches. I instantly fell in love with their sound when I stumbled across their 'Recover' EP just over a decade ago and have been along for the ride ever since, through their first album (which released later in 2013), their three subsequent albums, dozens of singles and other releases, and multiples tours (several of which I’ve even been able to attend!). I’ve even gotten to highlight their music here at Out of Left Field multiple times, the most notable of which was probably when I featured their most recent album, 'Screen Violence', at the top of my Summer 2021 Playlist.
Of course, the last major blurb I’ve written about them was over a year, as part of my Summer 2023 Playlist. For those who maybe missed it, I noted that there were a lot of factors that maybe feel like the end of something for the band; they released a special 10th Anniversary Edition of that debut record, The Bones of What You Believe, at least two thirds of the group has started releasing has started releasing music for side projects (Iain Cook with his duo Protection, which made my Start of 2023 Playlist with their debut EP, 'SEEDS I'*, and Lauren Mayberry as a solo artist, who made the Summer 2023 Playlist and its two follow-ups with new singles, although news of a full album remains stubbornly elusive^; I haven’t heard anything about if remaining member Martin Doherty is working on anything else), and their most recent new song (leaving aside the previously-unreleased tracks getting included on the Anniversary album) is a completely stand-alone single simply titled “Over”.
*Edit from Present Day Theo: While editing and polishing this, I learned that their EP ‘SEEDS II’ released late last year, and I just didn’t hear about it? I guess that’s going on the next playlist as well.
^Edit 2: As the new intro made clear, whatever studio roadblocks were delaying things here have been resolved, obviously.
Granted, the band hasn’t announced a hiatus to pursue other projects, or anything official like that. In fact, Chvrches recently signed new deals with record labels in the US and UK, leaving the label that had covered all of their releases up until now (I actually completely missed that news until I started researching this article!). So it maybe makes sense that there’s a bittersweet sense of moving on here; the band isn’t Over, but it definitely feels like the closing of one chapter in their story.
All of that kind of made me want to write something about them, some sort of retrospective on their first decade as a group, and when we’re talking about musicians, there’s a pretty natural vehicle for that: the Greatest Hits album. Or at least, that’s where my mind goes, since that was how I was introduced to a lot of older artists when I was growing up and learning about their past releases. I don’t really know how much of a demand there is for that these days, when most artists have their entire discographies on streaming services, and people are more inclined to pick out individual songs to try there rather than commit to an entire album.
Thankfully, though, I’m just one person using the concept of a “Greatest Hits” album to talk about a group that I love, rather than a marketing executive who actually has to sell the thing. And I do think that there’s at least some merit to the method of getting a curated walk through the best an artist has to offer, especially in the case of smaller acts where a casual listener might not know a dozen or more of their songs offhand.
But also, maybe there’s something to thinking about Greatest Hits in the context of modern music. There’s value in looking at the biggest hits of an artist’s career, the songs that resonated with the most people, and getting some sort of objective standard to build a look at their career. But also… if you’re a fan of a musician, I can almost guarantee that there are things you disagree with when just ranking songs by how big of a hit they were, whether that’s deep cuts that never got to be singles, or singles that took off despite being black sheeps in the artist’s discography, or songs that just went underappreciated for whatever reason.
Since these types of compilation albums are basically just playlists, and those are so quick and easy to assemble these days, maybe there’s value in just making more personalized Best Of collections? It feels like a difficult line to walk, like it could easily overload people with too many options as everyone builds their own list.
But… as a companion to an article, it at least feels justified, I think. So if you’re new to CHVRCHES and want to get a taste, or if you’re a fan who wants an excuse to revisit another fan’s perspective on the highlights of their catalog, I’m hoping this piece serves as a good jumping off piece!
The Biggest Hits
Let’s just start with this: are there any songs that absolutely must be included? Any signature songs, or things that tower above the rest of the band’s discography? I know that I just talked about curation, but I think there has to be some balance if you’re claiming to be making a Greatest Hits album, something that keeps it from just being your list of personal favorite songs.
The only Chvches song that I’d put in that category is “The Mother We Share”. It was their debut single, the one that got them a lot of attention. It’s still their best-selling lead single, the only one to achieve certification in the US, the UK, or Canada (it’s one of four to do so in Australia, though). It’s easily their most streamed solo track on Spotify, with over double the listens of their next closest. Basically, it’s hard to write the story of CHVRCHES without “The Mother We Share”; there’s a reason it often gets saved for the end of their live shows.
There’s a tougher call here, too: “Here With Me”, their collaboration with producer Marshmello from back in 2019. On the numbers, it’s hard to argue against it. It’s the only CHVRCHES song to chart on the Billboard Top 100 (peaking at #31), it’s sold more than anything else they’ve done, and it has nearly four times as many streams as “The Mother We Share” (which, remember, was already an order of magnitude more popular than the rest of their discography). This song is the reason I kept adding “as a lead artist” qualifications in the last paragraph (Marshmello is the lead artist, with Chvrches getting a featuring credit for their work).
But also… it does feel like a Marshmello track, first and foremost. I think that Chvrches definitely brings something to the song as well (to be frank, it’s almost certainly the reason I like it more than basically every other Marshmello song), but it still doesn’t feel as indicative of the rest of their work, and it rates pretty low in their overall discography. I think if it had gotten as big as “Happier” did (Marshmello’s collaboration with Bastille from the year prior, which “Here With Me” is clearly following in the footsteps of, although I do think it’s the better song), it becomes harder to deny; after all, “Happier” hit #2, and for all of its faults, I think “Here With Me” is the better song.
But it just wasn’t the same kind of inescapable hit, so it’s easier to push aside. Plus, it doesn’t help that the band immediately came into conflict with Marshmello after he decided to work with Chris Brown and Tyga on his next single, which in turn drew outrage from fans of those three artists. I think it’s very justifiable to include it on a final list, but I’m also fine leaving it off for a number of other songs if space is at all an issue; they have much better, more interesting collaborations that I’d take over it.
With the two clear standouts out of the way, going chronologically is probably the best way to proceed from here.
The Bones of What You Believe, 2013
What a wonderful debut album. Every song is just a perfect pop song, infectious and full of life, and I feel like every time I re-listen to it, a different one stands out. This is also definitely the most electronic of their albums, with the artificial, digital synths building a nice contrast to the warmth of the melodies and especially Lauren’s voice, and it gives a very interesting and distinctive feel. There’s also something to it being their most basic in their instrumentation, with those simple sounds.
While I love every song here, I do really think whoever was in charge of picking out the singles did an especially impeccable job, and all of them have become some of the band’s biggest songs. “Recover” was I believe the first song of theirs I ever heard, back on the EP with the same name, and it’s immediately arresting, with the sharp synth stabs and Lauren’s vocal echoes, building up to swelling chorus. It’s definitely the single with the most simplistic feel (helping it to work as an introduction to the band), but “Gun” and “Lies” continue with a lot of the same elements. Those sharp, piercing synths are giving catchy lines, and Mayberry gets to show off her impressive vocals even more, and every part of these will stick in your head.
And then, there’s the first two songs on the album. I’ve already covered “The Mother We Share”, it’s basically the Chvrches song, the one where everything is just firing on all cylinders. I heard it not terribly long after the 'Recover' EP, and it was what moved them from “Oh, I like this” to “I need to keep a close eye on this band and what they do next”.
Really, my only major gripe with the song is probably its position on the album. “We Sink” makes for a perfect opening track, with its propulsive momentum. And it’s so simple that it makes for a perfect opening, just a basic synth arpeggiator bursting out of nothing, then riding that and Mayberry’s sharp delivery before fully blossoming in the chorus as the song continues to build. I get that “The Mother We Share” is the big single, but I think you lose nothing by moving it to the second spot and letting “We Sink” open things up.
Speaking of, it’s wild to hear early versions of it where Martin was still singing the lead; he handles it well enough, but Lauren is just a much better singer (I could swear there even used to be a studio version on YouTube, although it seems to have been taken down). He did get lead vocals on the sixth and final single from the album, the sparkling build “Under the Tide”, which is a lot of fun… but it’s also difficult to justify sixth songs from one album on this list. I tried, but I didn’t want any single era dominating this too much.
Which is a shame, as I love the album tracks so much: the slow crescendo of “Tether”, the anxious “Night Sky”, the brooding “Science/Visions”, the glitchy stuttering layers of “Lungs”... Honestly, I really wanted to go with one of those as a dark horse pick if I had the space. (Don’t worry, I will find a spot for a Martin song later.) Like I said up top, the single selection was just too good, and it’s too difficult to vote any of them out.
Every Open Eye, 2015
Trying to describe the differences between Chvrches’ second album and their first is weirdly difficult? There’s definitely a difference in them, but it feels subtle. They’re still doing the synth-pop thing, with catchy electronic hooks and big choruses, and Lauren’s singing is just good, and the lyrics are good. It’s a pretty natural continuation of a lot of the ideas, but also feels bigger and warmer though? Like, rather than going with a few starkly artificial synths, there’s much more layering of many different synth sounds, so the songs feel bigger. The basic components are largely the same, but since the changes are around the margins, you might not notice it right away, or might not really be able to put it into words when you do notice it.
That is to say, it’s still definitely “a Chvrches album, but more”, so if you liked the first one, you’ll probably like this one a lot, too. Certainly the listening numbers on the different music platforms seem to reflect that as well, as I believe the album generally has the highest average listens per track of any of their albums. Reviews, too, were generally at the same level as the first album. It also got an extended re-release afterwards, with several new songs added (foreshadowing: some of which may be appearing here), and they also started to get more regular chart success on the US Billboard charts (albeit almost all of it was on the various, more-niche Rock and Alternative charts, and ultimately none of it outdid “The Mother We Share” anyway).
Given the popularity of the album, it makes sense to me to go with another five songs here, and I do think the singles are a good starting point. However, I’m more open to deviating from that a little bit, since they don’t stand out quite as starkly as they did on 'The Bones of What You Believe'.
I think “Leave a Trace” is a must-pick based on quality alone, but it was also the lead single and top-seller in addition to that. I’d also go for “Bury It”, specifically, the duet with singer Hayley Williams from Paramore that came out as a single to promote one of the new extended editions; that version also got a nice music video from artist Jamie McKelvie (who’s also worked on some of my favorite comics). This version just makes for such a neat combination of different artists I enjoy, and I always kind of wished it had gotten bigger; I kind of wonder if the late release in the album’s life affected that?
As for a track that never got a single release, I’m going to go with “High Enough to Carry You Over”, which for my money, is the best song they’ve released with Martin on lead vocals. It’s got a nice, dark groove, they give Doherty some catchy parts that he can belt. The big synth drop moment on “Under the Tide” is great, but I can’t subconsciously start singing that moment to myself like I can “And I ne-ver would have given you up…”
For my last two spots, I’m fine picking from the remaining singles, “Never Ending Circles”, “Clearest Blue”, and “Empty Threat”. If I have to drop one of those three… it’s probably “Never Ending Circles”. It’s a good, solid album-opener, but it just doesn’t have the extra oomph. “Empty Threat”’s more reserved bridge building back into the final, huge chorus is a great cathartic moment that’s too much to deny. And on a similar note, “Clearest Blue” uses the same trick in a different structure, spending the first half building tension before just bringing a big, crashing synth line down to drive the second half of the song. It’s a great, huge moment when they do it live.
Love Is Dead, 2018
I have a mix of thoughts about this album. It’s not bad, although it’s probably my least favorite of Chvrches four main releases? I don’t think that’s a terribly controversial statement, as it generally seems to have fewer listens on streaming platforms and lower scores from reviewers.
It’s also probably worth noting that it kind of is the black sheep of their albums, as the only one that the band didn’t produce entirely themselves, with Greg Kurstin coming in to do most of that (along with a few others). I’ve seen some describe that as part of an attempt to go mainstream, and I can definitely see that just based on Kurstin and company’s track record. He and Steve Mac (who worked on two of the songs) especially have a track record of big pop success. Of course, it didn’t really work; the album itself seems to have done about as well on the charts as 'Every Open Eye', possibly slightly worse, and the biggest individual success of the era, the aforementioned non-album single “Here With Me” (which Steve Mac also co-wrote and co-produced) didn’t seem to raise the band’s profile.
Now that I’ve said all of that, it sounds much more negative than I intended. The album is fine, really; it’s actually kind of difficult to pin down why it doesn’t work quite as well as the other ones? The biggest change in song composition is probably that a lot of the more artificial synth sounds have been sanded down, maybe? Which honestly makes it feel kind of like a natural continuation of the trends that lead into 'Every Open Eye'. Even that excuse, though, I’m not fully sold on.
Really, I think the biggest change is that the hooks are a little worse, and so the B-tier stuff doesn’t draw me in as much as the B-tier stuff on the first two albums. I can kind of see where they were coming from, though, as it kind of fits with the era. The Alternative charts in 2018 were definitely more down-tempo than they were in 2013 or 2015, and I just don’t think that style suits Chvrches as well.
That might have been the biggest attempt they made trend-chasing, and it would probably explain the choice of singles as well. “Get Out” was a pretty standard lead single for them, the sort of big, anthemic synth banger you’d expect, maybe just a bit moodier. But from there, they went with the very downtempo “My Enemy” (a duet with The National’s Matt Beringer), “Never Say Die”, and “Miracle” (both of which feel like they’re trying to repeat the builds of “Clearest Blue” or “Empty Threat”, but in a minor key). I’d absolutely keep “Get Out” on my list, but when I relisten to the full album, the other three all kind of slide off of me to varying extents. If I’m going to break from their chart success in my list, this is where it will happen the most; I don’t mind keeping one of them, but all three of them feels like a bit of a waste.
Especially given the highlights here are still actually really good! For example, I would say that 'Love Is Dead' has the best opening and closing tracks of any Chvrches album! “Graffiti” is a big, soaring introduction, beginning with sharp synth stabs made of vocal samples from Lauren Mayberry, before Lauren herself comes in to belt heartrending laments to a lost future. It’s honestly one of my favorite Chvrches songs ever, and I suspect it would have been the fifth single, had they gotten to it; it even received a music video towards the end of 2018. I don’t know that it would have changed anything at that point, but I do kind of wonder how it would have done as an early single; I think this style of melancholy suits the band much better than things like “My Enemy”.
(Also, if you want a different take on the song, “Graffiti” also got a very sweet arrangement on their acoustic/orchestral EP 'Hansa Session' later in 2018.)
On the other end of things, there’s “Wonderland”, a song that starts much quieter (and even leads in with the 1-minute piano interlude “ii”) before cutting into a very introspective take on the more traditional Chvrches structure; we get a simple synth loop under Lauren reflecting on a deteriorating mental state, slowly blooming into double-tracked harmonies on the pre-chorus that builds into a hard hitting chorus that feels like it’s echoing through a vast, empty hall. It’s a beautiful but simple melody, with a sentiment of resolve to follow up the various anxieties of the album: “Can’t live forever/with my head in the clouds/Can’t predict the weather/with my feet on the ground”. It’s simple, but so effective, like standing up and dusting yourself off after a rough day, and gosh does it ever make for a big moment of catharsis for the record.
(And for another alternate arrangement, I’d also be more than fine using this version they did from the Moog Sound Lab, which was apparently the first live performance of the song. This version is so simple but layered, and really emphasized their more traditional style.)
I’ve been taking five songs from each album so far, but I’m fine cutting that back to four for 'Love Is Dead'. I think a little bit of that is because I put it below the first two albums, but the bigger factors are a little more logistical: I want a little extra space at the end for some non-album songs, at this era will actually contribute a few options there. So we’ll take “Get Out”, “Graffiti”, and “Wonderland”, and for the fourth one… it’s probably just "take your pick" from the other singles, so I’d go with “Miracle”.
Screen Violence, 2021
I actually wrote about this one here a little bit back when it came out, which doesn’t feel that long ago. It got top billing on my Summer 2021 Playlist, and the 'Director’s Cut' deluxe version got a brief follow-up in the End of 2021 Playlist.
Honestly, I kind of ran into a wall with this article at this point when I started it; I think it was because this one still felt a little too new and I didn’t really know what to say about it that I didn’t put in the original review. So I shelved it for several months, not really sure where to go while I worked on other stuff, until a friend inspired me to re-listen to it around Halloween, at which point I realized “yeah, enough time has passed that I feel like I can talk about this without just repeating what I said last time”.
This one… might actually be my favorite Chvrches album? I have a hard time confirming this, because I’ll always have different emotional attachment to each of them in different ways (and their first two records will just always be saturated in nostalgia, especially). But… re-listening to the whole thing just keeps highlighting different elements that I love, some of which I didn’t appreciate at the release, and different songs stand out each time for very different reasons.
I really think this one seems to be a better synthesis of what they were going for in 'Love Is Dead' too? They marrying the sort of big pop hooks (the kind they’ve always had an ear for and refined over time) with their characteristic synths, but here wielded in a variety of ways that feels wider than before, from swelling walls of support to atmospheric support coloring the feel of a song to the occasional beautiful, cutting line of electronic melody. And I think they’ve really nailed the sort of darker feel that a lot of the last record’s singles attempted, but in a way that better fits in Chvrches’ style: wistful longing, crushing self-doubt, sparse anxiety and loneliness, resoluteness in the face of hardship, and the occasional melodramatic wail of anguish and being overwhelmed.
It all works to this albums’ themes very well, building a coherent throughline that is less of a single throughline than a general tableau of the negative miasma of feelings dragged to the front by the pandemic. But it’s also… not about that; the introspection from that time makes sense, but the specifics are mostly about other, often fairly mundane, things, so it’s very easy to just put it on now and just find it generally relatable.*
*Also, the Halloween relisten was specifically fun, because that time of year makes it a great listen. It’s less overtly spooky than the name and cover art suggests, but there are definitely darker moments and imagery that make it feel apt for that time of year. And some of the individual songs could easily slot onto a larger Halloween playlist.
And I know that these descriptors can sound like a lot, but I find that my time listening to the album tends to breeze by. In no small part because the actual song writing keeps it from being too overwhelming; like I said, there’s still plenty of catchy bits and beautiful arrangements that keep things from feeling like they’re wallowing too much, and the details of most of the lyrics plus those sounds make the whole thing feel almost cathartic. Some of them feel like staring down a problem, but even the less resolute ones feel like getting something out of just reflecting or sharing the intense emotions.
Picking actual songs is kind of difficult? I feel like I change my mind on almost every re-listen. The overall quality is so high that it often feels like every pick is a sleight, and each omission leaves out a piece of the total texture (in a way that I don’t even feel is true of 'The Bones of What You Believe' or 'Every Open Eye'). But there is one constant in my thinking every time I approach that question, an easy first selection.
I’m not sure if “How Not To Drown” is my favorite song Chvrches has ever done, but it’s good enough that I wouldn’t rule it out of the running. The track, which even brings in the legendary Robert Smith of The Cure for a guest verse and some instrumentals, sits as the centerpiece of 'Screen Violence', right in the middle of the tracklisting (at least, of the regular edition). Ominous synths and crashing piano chords follow a pulsing bass line into Mayberry and Smith trade wails about desperately struggling not to be pulled under. Every piece of it works to build a grand piece that feels both packed with ideas and still too short, despite a five-and-a-half minute run time. Even the minute-and-a-half outro feels like it’s barely enough time to recover from the emotional highs of the choruses. It’s hard to say if this is the biggest song off the album (chart data was becoming rarer for Chvrches in this era), but it was the second single and seems to have the most YouTube views, plus it won NME’s “Best Song by a UK Artist” award back in 2022, so it seems like others agree with my thinking that this would be a must-pick.
There were only two other singles from 'Screen Violence', “Good Girls” and lead single “He Said She Said”. I like the two of them quite a bit, and they seem close in popularity just going by streaming counts… but I would say this is also a prime spot to deviate a little if you wanted. Both songs deal with similar topics thematically, and they also seem to be a little closer sonically, pulling from the sounds of the band’s first two albums (I’d say “He Said She Said” is closer to ‘Bones’-era Chvrches, while ‘Good Girls’ feels more like ‘Every Open Eye’). If you were just going by numbers, you could probably just include both, but since I want to give a fuller picture of the whole album… I’d probably go with “Good Girls”. I think I just like it a little better, the big anthemic chorus and ending just does it for me.* But I also think there’s a track that better incorporates the feel of early Chvrches.
*Also, another interesting collaboration of this era was getting famed director and composer John Carpenter to remix “Good Girls”, while Chvrches remixed Carpenter’s song “Turning the Bones”. I still prefer the original version of “Good Girls”, but this one also has some good moments, and it is another fun tie-in to ‘Screen Violence’’s horror theme.
I realize that I’m a sucker for opening tracks (both generally and Chvrches specifically), but I’d also put “Asking for a Friend” here. There’s a lot about this one and the squeaky synth arpeggiators and atmosphere that feels like a throwback to their first era. But it also builds on that in a way that feels like the newer, more mature band that they’ve become, almost like they’re doing a new take on “We Sink”. It really serves as a perfect introduction, like a bridge from the older band to their new era.
And Lauren can really flex here, going with warm tones and big belting for the choruses in a way that feels directly opposed to the approach she used back on ‘The Bones of What You Believe’. I was actually more middling on “Asking for a Friend” when the album came out for whatever reason, but over time something about it just sunk in, to the point where I found it idly popping into my head, making me return to the record. Maybe it’s the bittersweet lyrics reflecting on lost pasts, building to calls of “You still matter!” and “Home, can we go?” over frantic choruses of synthesizers, but I think it’s just a perfect stage-setter for the rest of the album.
That leaves me with two more slots to fill here, and no real guidance on where to start, so I think it’s going to come down to my choice. Like I said, I could go with just about anything else from the album, but the three remaining tracks that I feel the most strongly about are probably “California”, “Violent Delights”, and “Killer” (the last of those is one of the three bonus tracks added to the end of the album for the Deluxe Edition).
I’m really partial to “Killer”, which feels like a perfect single for the album's horror conceits: it’s an incredibly catchy pop song structured around what sounds like ‘80s synth sounds from a horror movie, with lyrics describing mentally breaking down and lashing out at others in a perfectly direct metaphor. But as much as I like it as a single and bonus track… I also get why it wasn’t included on the original album track listing. It’s so on-the-nose that I think it actually works best as a bonus track, a sort of post-finale encore that directly ties things together while maybe standing a little apart from the record’s main throughline. It probably also helps that 'Screen Violence' goes for a more understated finish in ‘Better If You Don’t’, a concluding number that deliberately leaves things feeling more unresolved. Understandable given the material, but it leaves me wanting more in a way that Chvrches’ other album closers don’t, making ‘Killer’ a very welcome addition, albeit one that is less essential to the flow.
Meanwhile, I can’t imagine ‘Screen Violence’ without “California” and “Violent Delights”. I’m a little worried that I’m overpulling from the front half of the album (if you swapped “Good Girls” for “He Said She Said” here, my picks would literally just be the A-side of the record), bit I just love it so much, and these two songs are crucial in setting the stage for the heady rush of emotions leading into “How Not to Drown”, followed by the moodier come-down of the second half.
“Violent Delights” sits right before that centerpiece, and really almost feels like a lead-in. My best analogy is that “How Not to Drown” almost feels like sort of anxiety-inducing nightmare in the middle of the night, “Violent Delights” is a thrashing, restless sleep that precedes it, where your mind hasn’t settled into one storyline and instead flashes between stressful, half-formed thoughts.* The death of a loved one, self harm, malevolent spirits, barely coalescing into a narrative, accompanied by a frantic drum break loop and whirling synth atmospheres that keep it pulsing along. It also marks the album’s biggest vocal appearance of Martin Doherty on the record, giving him a tense solo over the bridge that contrasts nicely with Mayberry’s desperate tone.
*And I guess that sets up “Final Girl” as the part where you bolt out of bed and try to convince yourself that it’s not real and rebuild your resolve. I actually really like that analogy, and it makes me want to reconsider adding it here as well, but I’m already so tight on spaces that I don’t know that I can justify it…
And then there’s “California”, which might be the band’s most melancholic song, like a sequel to “Grafiti” where the memories of the past good times have faded, leaving only the stubborn question of “What am I even doing anymore?”. I think it really helps showcase ‘Screen Violence’’s emotional range as an album. And it’s so good at what it does that it’s another song that I’ll just occasionally have it pop into my head when the situation is right. And Lauren’s voice work here is just fantastic, with some big belting moments at the peak, and she really sells what might be some of the best lyrics on the record.
‘Screen Violence’ seems to have been well received on its release, roughly in line with ‘The Bones of What You Believe’ and ‘Every Open Eye’, which I think is well-deserved. It does seem like there are fewer reviews for it than those two, although that may be more due to the crushing realities of how hard it is to keep music outlets open in the modern era. Of course, the sort of 2010s indie wave Chvrches has rode in on has also somewhat receded, so maybe the moment has passed. I’d love to hear their continued progression from here, and I’m excited to see where Lauren Mayberry’s solo record goes, plus any other follow-ups from other band members; I’ve also loved the early results for Iain Cook’s new team-up project Protection. But if that doesn’t happen, if you liked any of their earlier stuff and somehow missed ‘Screen Violence’, absolutely give it a listen!
Other Assorted Things, 2012-2023
But before we completely wrap things up here, we have a few more slots left! And while you could probably just pick a few of the runners-up that I listed for those spots, I think there are a few other interesting projects to cover in the things that didn’t actually reach an official CHVRCHES album.
-I think I’ve covered most of Chvrches big collaborations at this point, with one exception: “Out of My Head”, their song with Japanese Alternative band Wednesday Campanella, a single from the ‘Love Is Dead’ era (which got included on a Deluxe Version of the record, but only in Japan; for whatever reason, Chvrches has also done fairly well for themselves over there). I love this song (and its striking animated music video, loaded with weird, colorful scenes), and I think it does a fantastic job of showing two groups playing off each other well. If I’m taking a non-album collab single from this period, I’d take this one over “Here With Me” every time, even if the latter was a bigger deal on the charts.
-They’ve also done a number of relatively high-profile soundtrack appearances, which have some decent crossover success. “Dead Air” was included on the soundtrack to one of the Hunger Games movies released between their first and second albums, and sounds perfectly of-a-piece with their first album. They also got a few prominent video game inclusions, which I naturally find interesting; “Warning Call” was written for the second Mirror’s Edge game, and they got to write the title track for Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding. I kind of want to include at least one of them, because I think they’re an unique side of the band that I want to represent in some way. None of them is much bigger than the others, so I’d probably go with “Warning Call” just on personal preference.
They also did a few covers of goth rock cult classics “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and “Cry Little Sister” for different Young Adult horror movies, which sounds like I’m making fun of them, but I do actually think they’re fascinating. Really, I’m not going to include any of their covers on my final track listing, but I do think they have some good ones (a lot of them weren’t officially released as singles anyway, though).
-I was tempted to include some of their early stuff; for example, I’m still a fan of “Zvvl” or “Now Is Not the Time’ off of their initial ‘Recover’ EP. But as the title implies, the song “Recover” was also there and can probably serve as the representation of that era. And technically, “The Mother We Share” even preceded that as a single, so their early days are already well represented (kind of shocking that their biggest non-crossover song was still probably their first one, but I also feel like they’re not the first artists that’s happened to).
While I’m on the “early days” train, they also included some cut demos on a 10th Anniversary re-release of ‘The Bones of What You Believe’, which are interesting to listen to as a fan; they also definitely feel like a part of that era. But I also get why they were all cut; none of them feels quite as polished and ready-to-go as the final release listing.
-And finally: I think “Over” should be here. Partly because it’s a solid track that seems to have done decently well, but also partly because it would be a great closing track for a compilation like this, for all of the reasons I listed in the intro; even if they come back for more, this feels like the definitive way to close out Act I of their story.
Really, I think just arranging everything chronologically is the best option for our playlist, but the fact that this option would get us basically the perfect opening and closing track is too good to pass up.
The Final Track List
In the end, I decided on a 22-song track list for my CHVRCHES compilation. I got fixated on that number, thinking it was the perfect number for a Greatest Hits album, but I really don’t know where it came from. It’s probably too many picks for a “traditional” best-of album, but that was as much driven by storage technology as anything else (and that’s clearly not a problem these days).
In the end, I ended up realizing that I was sticking to that number in part because it was the threshold where it felt like I had to make meaningful cuts. Like, I could bump my total up 25 to satisfy my appreciation of square numbers, and in the process add “Here With Me” or “Dead Air” or some combination of singles that I cut, but every extra pick made it feel less distinct than I originally wanted? So I stuck with my original justification: 5 songs per album, plus 2 non-album picks (with one ‘Love is Dead’ pick going to the related “Out of My Head”). That seemed like a reasonable plan. So in the end, we’ve got:
| Song | Original Release |
|---|---|
| The Mother We Share | The Bones of What You Believe |
| We Sink | The Bones of What You Believe |
| Gun | The Bones of What You Believe |
| Lies | The Bones of What You Believe |
| Recover | The Bones of What You Believe |
| Leave a Trace | Every Open Eye |
| Clearest Blue | Every Open Eye |
| High Enough to Carry You Over | Every Open Eye |
| Empty Threat | Every Open Eye |
| Bury It (feat. Hayley Williams) | Every Open Eye |
| Warning Call | Mirror's Edge Catalyst |
| Graffiti | Love Is Dead |
| Get Out | Love Is Dead |
| Miracle | Love Is Dead |
| Wonderland | Love Is Dead |
| Out of My Head (feat. WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA) | Single |
| Asking for a Friend | Screen Violence |
| California | Screen Violence |
| Violent Delights | Screen Violence |
| How Not to Drown (with Robert Smith) | Screen Violence |
| Good Girls | Screen Violence |
| Over | Single |
I had a lot of fun doing this, and maybe I’ll do more articles like it in the future now that I have one to go off of. If you’d like to read more of my non-baseball writing, I have a mailing list specifically for Out of Left Field, which I only use when I have a new article up, so feel free to subscribe!
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