Chvrches brings the horror on latest album, Screen Violence.
There’s a line in the song “Wonderland” — the last song on Chvrches’ 2018 album Love Is Dead — where Lauren Mayberry sings, “I can’t live forever with my head and my heart in the clouds”. It’s a lyric that stays with you long after the song is over because it’s that thought provoking and deep.
A lot of the songs on Screen Violence, Chvrches’ fourth album, and follow up to their 2018 album, Love is Dead, take that lyric, and that theme of being unable to “live forever” with your “head and heart in the clouds” to a whole new level. If you (like me) thought “Wonderland” was a thought provoking and sweet yet sullen synth pop ballad, there’s a whole lot more of where that came from on Screen Violence. Except this time around the ballads are less sweet and much more sensational.
Mayberry indicated on social media prior to the release of SV that horror movies would have their share of influence on the album. She also admitted this was the beginning of a “new era”. And it’s obvious to see Chvrches took a more horror punk/gothic-pop approach to things this time around than they have on any of their previous releases.Darkness is at play. And with Lauren behind the scenes, you know things are going to be edgy.
The album opens in a dark and lonely place. You can feel the influence of Pale Waves’ 2018 album, My Mind Makes Noises right from the onset. Admist the haunting synths and walls of sound, Lauren finds herself overwrought with conflicted emotions over a past lover or friend on “Asking for a Friend”. She appears desperate and powerless as she reflects on the fact she couldn’t even ask this person to “celebrate the end” with her — she had to ask under the guise of a friend. It’s a song that embodies the hopelessness of realizing you can’t go back to a specific place and time again because “the past is in the past,” and how thinking about the time lost can pull you into the rabbit hole.
“Asking for a friend” sets the stage for what is gonna be a tumultuous ride through a series of tortured thoughts and memories told through violent poetic impulses matched to haunting melodies. This album is a psychological thriller in a sense — there are lows and highs, both lyrically and musically. It’s the album you’ll want to scream your heart to, but not in the screamo/screaming vocals sense. Angst is at stake on this album, and it comes with a high price — your sanity. But don’t worry, it’ll never envelop you completely because this isn’t an album for the self pitying. It’s an album for the self reflecting, an album for those of us who want to rewrite our story. This is the album where you come to terms with your demons and face them for the fight of your life. As with any bad/negative experience, first, you have to let yourself get suckered into the nightmare, “pulled into the screen”. Then once you’re in the screen, like a characters in a video game, it’s how you fight off your demons, that determines whether you live or die. This is the album you aren’t the victim anymore, it’s where you take back control. This is an album full of empowerment, and particularly female empowerment.
Boasting the most direct lyrics on a Chvrches album yet, Screen Violence doesn’t mess around with its subject matter. The madness of being alone, being depressed, and losing yourself inside the screen and the violence it causes from all the self reflection etc are all topics up for discussion on the album. As Lauren relapses between her own self inflicted madness and memories, she re-wites the script. And this time, she refuses to let herself succumb to falling victim to the screen violence. She writes a different ending for herself, one where she takes back control after “losing” her “mind” in the madness. She comes back for revenge, and it’s complicated, heartbreaking and even maddening at times, but she never compromises her faith as she wrestles with her inner demons. Like the heroines in the movies, Mayberry handles her obstacles with the finest strength. She never succumbs to them, but instead finds empowerment in facing them.She stays strong. She won’t let herself succumb to the screen violence.
Deep within the songs of the album, it’s hard not to miss the Jekyll and Hyde roleplay on this album. Mayberry volleys between the one committing the violence ( Violent Delights, Good Girls, ) and the one who is the victim of the violence. Considering this is an album that thematically messes with the idea of “losing” your “mind” as you reflect on things, alone, it’s not a surprise that there is a lot of roleplaying. And there is a lot of physical roleplaying on the album, moments when Mayberry emerges as different characters, all of whom are involved in screen violence. Lyrically so much of this album explores the psychological implications of taking in all this violence we witness on the screen and how we process it. People often never take a second to realize the psychological reasons were drawn to the “screen violence” until we take a step back and evaluate our own lives. And that brings me to another cool thing about this album.
On almost every song the listener finds themselves in the middle of a thought, a memory, a scene inside their heads. At times, listening to the songs on SV feel almost exactly like thinking or processing thoughts. It’s so easy to get lost in a memory, a thought. And that’s precisely what happens on every song. You get lost in the madness of these thoughts. And once you’re in them, finding your way out can kind of feel like finding your way out of Wonderland. You want to escape, you know how, but there’s all these obstacles and different possibilities that stand in the way.
But whether Mayberry is replaying conversations in her head about her past relationships, , “dying in a dream”, wrestling with some of her inner demons, it’s clear angst is at stake, and it comes with a high price. Yes, this is an album about love, revenge, and everything in between as seen through the eyes of cinema’s loves, but it’s also an album with a lot of underlying discussion points.
There’s a lot of irony in the lyrics if you read them closely. And it can feel deliberate at times. And that’s what makes this album so good. You can tell the band worked hard to make this a solid statement piece. This is not just another Chvrches album, it truly is the beginning of a new era for the band — an era where the band references things in their songs and doesn’t hold back. Chvrches follows in the footsteps of Garbage this around. Mayberry takes control (not just of the mic) but of talking points and by doing it through metaphor and catchy melodies, the songs stick in your head. And as you replay the lyrics in your head, you can’t help but think to yourself hm there is a bigger picture to this song, it’s not just about x, it’s a jumpstart to a discussion on xyz. And that’s what’s so brilliant about this album. The lyrics and the way the songs are constructed to match the lyrics haunt you in the middle of the night, like a scene from a horror movie.
I have a feeling the “violent delights” that Lauren sings of will keep “creeping into my nights”, but I don’t mind since they’re backed unbelievably catchy synths. And that’s what’s so awesome about this album. You can’t listen to it and forget about it. It stays with you like a weird dream or a sequence from a horror movie. It stays with you. But at its heart it’s an album of conviction. Lauren gets her revenge, and she does so by flipping the script on us. As listeners, we’re the ones who experience the screen violence she sings of despite it being her own screen violence. And it’s really freakin’ good.
