The Daily Spin, January 11
CHVRCHES | Screen Violence
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023. It’s Day 11. Double digits!
I do apologize for the delay. I’m currently traveling for work, so I’m busier than normal (and in Pacific time, so I’m living in the past).
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: Screen Violence (2021)
Artist: CHVRCHES
Link:
When a band starts so strongly as CHVRCHES did in 2013 with The Bones of What You Believe In, it’s quite easy to forget that they may not always hit that peak. After some years of less-than-stellar releases, though, the Scottish trio came back incredibly strongly with Screen Violence, the band’s fourth full release.
Where this album excels is honestly in the band trying less to be a pop act and being more authentically themselves - as another act in the indie-rock-electronic scene, it can be hard to gain that differentiation and easy to feel that a more commercial play is the path forward, but Love Is Dead, the group’s previous effort, made it extremely clear that this was not the case for everyone.
The back of this album slips a little, but it’s buoyed so brilliantly by a strong midsection that slips are far easier to pass along - and despite an open that takes a moment to give hold, the run from California through Good Girls is 10/10 material to a one. One of the strongest runs in recent memory off an album, and it floats missteps out of mind.
Rating: 8.4/10
Best Tracks: Violent Delights, How Not To Drown
Worst Tracks: Lullabies