Music Faves - Chvrches

I've decided to start a series of blog posts where I talk about my favourite band/artist and give some background information on them. I hope I have got all the information in the posts right, comment if there's anything I've missed or got wrong and I'll correct/add in!  I thought I'd start it off with Chvrches; I've only recently started really listening to them, I'd heard of them, Hayley Williams (of Paramore) had performed with them a few times, but I hadn't actually listened to them fully. It wasn't until I actually watched a performance of Hayley, who also features on their new single, and them that I decided to listen to their albums of which they have two - The Bones of What You Believe and Every Open Eye.

Chvrches consists of three members: Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and Lauren Mayberry, and the band was formed in 2011 after Cook was producing an EP for one of Mayberry's first bands. Cook had started a project with Martin and asked Lauren if she would provide vocals, they wrote songs together and decided to form Chvrches (spelt using a Roman "v" to avoid confusing with google searches." They have also stated that their name has 'no religious connotations' and that they 'just thought it sounded cool.'

The 20th September 2013 was when their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, was released. A 12 song album, with the special addition having 16 - two new songs and two remixes, of Gun and The Mother We Share. Also, if you got the special addition from iTunes, there was two videos you'd receive as well (the tracks vary depending where in the world it was released). The singles that were released from this album was The Mother We Share, Recover and Gun. The genre of this album was seen as Synthpop/ Indie pop. For a first album, they had strong songs on here, with all singles that were released catchy songs that would go far, but the whole album is a consistent listen, with not one song sounding out of place.

Their second album, Every Open Eye, was released 25th September 2015. The standard edition had 11 songs, and the special had an additional 3 songs. There have been four singles from this album; Leave a Trace, Never Ending Circles, Clearest Blue, Empty Threat and Bury It.  On May 13th this year, Warning Call was released, a theme song from a video game (Mirror's Edge Catalyst). When Bury It was released, it was a new version, featuring Hayley Williams, but I definitely prefer the original. Hayley's voice is great, but I don't feel she was needed for this song, maybe a male would have brought new life/meaning to the song. While I loved their first album, their second is definitely my favourite so far, the sound and the lyrics just feel so much more to me, they are slightly more polished without sounding to overdone.

Recommended songs; Down Side Of Me, High Enough To Carry You Over and Tether.

Spotify related artists; MS MR, St. Lucia, Haim, The Neighbourhood, The 1975 and Pacific Air, just to name a few.