The Daily Spin, June 9
CHVRCHES | The Bones Of What You Believe
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: The Bones of What You Believe (2013)
Artist: CHVRCHES
Link:
This record, the Scottish trio’s debut, is full of crackling energy, a direct contradiction to the sleepy, soupy sound that had been endemic to indie pop in the late aughts and early teens. Every single note feels sharp, precisely placed in a way that few groups have managed to nail quite as they have.
Despite a lack of guitar work, tending to lean into like-sounding synths to take over that role, this album has more than a few moments where it bursts with energy like you get from rock stadiums, yet it finds equal footing slowing down and take the long road.
The clear strongest tracks on the album sit right at the open, and that does make the rest of the album a bit of a downhill slide, but you’re coming down from a metaphorical Everest. More intriguing to me is being able to side-by-side the development of their sound over the past decade, looking at Screen Violence as a pretty direct evolution of the darker tones that come through with pretty free abandon on this album as well.
That lack of fear of exploration carried them through that album as it carried them through this album, and it’s what made them so revolutionary here, intersecting indietronica with rock and pop influences, being unafraid of getting a little wonky with it to turn around and tie it all together with a spectacular bow on top.
Rating: 8.5/10
Best Tracks: The Mother We Share; We Sink; Science/Visions
Worst Tracks: Recover