DavidWasHere 5

This was a massive disappointment. CHVRCHES are one of my favorite current pop bands. The Bones of What You Believe is one of my favorite This was a massive disappointment. CHVRCHES are one of my favorite current pop bands. The Bones of What You Believe is one of my favorite albums ever, and Every Open Eye was a solid follow-up. So I was excited when the band came back with this new album. However, I have not heard any of the singles coming forward. If I did, then I would have known to fear. And all of this can be blamed on one man, Greg Kurstin. He's well known for producing music for Adele, Sia, Lily Allen, and for indie-leaning acts like the first Foster the People album, the Shin's Port of Morrow, and the last two Tegan and Sara albums where they went pop, and for some reason the latest Foo Fighters album that was bland, and the soundtrack for that god-awful Annie remake back in 2014. And this has all the problems that Greg Kurstin has, overproduced and cluttered. While this more arena-friendly synthpop sound might work for CHVRCHES since they do know how to write catchy anthems, this just did not work. The production sounds way too cluttered and strangling lead singer Lauren Mayberry's pixie-like vocals. While Mayberry never was the showiest singer, she does have a prescience that does lead well to their trademark retro-synthpop. However the production is meant for more showier and expressive singers, not Mayberry. Songs like Get Out and the EDM-like Never Say Die completely smother her vocals. It highlights how limited of a singer she really is, which is never good! Although to be fair she sounds better than the male vocals that take the lead on God's Plan! Not to mention that this is the worst CHVRCHES album in terms of hooks and choruses. While they aren't known for writing deep and philosophical lyrics, they know how to write a pop song! One of the reason why songs like the Mother We Share and Leave a Trace being so damn good! Love is Dead, meanwhile, has hooks that fall flat on it's face. Whether it's cheap lyrical repetition, like on the embarrassing attempt at an EDM banger on Miracle, or just weak chorus melodies, like on Get Out (which is a shame because it does have a nice synth riff). There are a few songs that are decent. Deliverance and Graves do sound close to a classic CHVRCHES sound but never quite getting to the tight melodies and airy synths that was on their first two albums, the Matt Berninger (frontman of the National and EL VY) featuring song My Enemy is a decent slower moment that was very welcome, even though Matt sounds out of place for this style of electronic music when compared to his work on EL VY (say what you will abut that project at least it matches Matt's baritone), and Heaven/Hell is the strongest song on the album, and to be fair the melodies are nice in the songs even with the blaring production highlighting none of that. I can see some fans getting into this album, but honestly this is nowhere as close as The Bones of What You Believe or Every Open Eye, not even by a mile. It's not flat-out terrible, but damn it it could have been so much better! … Expand