Screen Violence
| Chvrches
Screen Violence
Screen Violence is the fourth studio album by Scottish synth-pop band Chvrches. It was released on 27 August 2021 through EMI Records in the UK and Glassnote Records in the US. Lead single "He Said She Said" was released on 19 April. The album was announced alongside the second single, "How Not to Drown", a collaboration with Robert Smith, lead singer of the Cure. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
On its fourth album, the Scottish trio steps back from the grandest pop aspirations and embraces a horror-movie concept without losing its signature brightness and sense of joy.
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Rolling Stone
The Glasgow band tackles the misogyny and despairs of the digital age on their latest album.
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Variety
A duet with a longtime hero, the Cure's Robert Smith, serves as a well-deserved affirmation of just how much the synth-fueled Scottish trio has already accomplished.
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NME
songs like horror vignettes, and their best album yet.
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The Guardian
The Glaswegian trio use horror film tropes to explore fame, double standards and battles closer to home on their intense fourth album.
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Stereogum
Rather than catering to the trends of the moment — the wispy minimalist pop girls, the pop-punk hybridizers, the disco revivalists, whatever — the band has unlocked new dimensions within their own sound. Rather than turning to interlopers, they’ve trusted their own instincts. Don’t be surprised if Chvrches start making converts again with this one.
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mxdwn Music
Chvrches’s Screen Violence is filled with chilling, dark themes, but it will nevertheless provide solace to many who are going through the hardships explored on this impressive new release.
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Atwood Magazine
Chvrches’ Screen Violence is a mesmerizing album that is very psychologically impactful in enabling one to think with enhanced degrees of clarity in reflecting on the tensions of existence, and in providing ideas and perspectives that create integral layers of thinking on life in the periphery in transfiguring our inner experience. This Scottish band is life altering as they continue to build on the force and veracity of their musical vision through every album, and in this work they have created a subtle, empowering, and unnerving portal on the human experience.
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The Young Folks
CHVRCHES manage to sidestep many of the tropes surrounding this subject while still delivering with a transparency and vision to assuage a lot of the anxieties that came about due to the pandemic while not being as rigidly conceived as a result of it.
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Consequence Sound
Screen Violence contains cathartic moments, anthems in the dark, and they approach them with tact and enthusiasm. In “California,” Mayberry reminds us that there’s “freedom in failure.” It’s a fitting sentiment when considering a career as an artist, but it’s also a perfect way to sum up Screen Violence — even when times are darkest, there’s always a moment of euphoria waiting on the other side.
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The Line of Best Fit
For those of us who weren’t quite on board with Lorde’s Solar Power, Screen Violence by Chvrches might be a more relatable fit as it dives headfirst into the rabbit hole of overthinking and questioning the world around it.
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Popmatters
Creating warm, emotional synthpop is Chvrches’ forte, and Screen Violence is the kind of bruised pop record that can only be made after a year of so much loss.
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EW
Even amidst all the worrying, their defiant, quivering music vibrates with possibility in a way that plainly, and passionately, refutes even the darkest moments of despair expressed in its lyrics.
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Albumism
For all the dread and dislocation present in Screen Violence, it's surprisingly comforting. A "you're not in this alone" lifeline that seeks to save with every anthemic refrain—and there are many. The trio has crafted a near-perfect post-pandemic (oh please God) synth-pop journey that is at once an escape and a finding of common ground. For all of the horror motifs at play, the feeling is a stark contrast, presenting an almost Hughesian sense of being able to survive the most trying of times and feel inspired by it.
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Magnetic Magazine
CHVRCHES deliver some of their best work to date, examining our reliance on screens and more with the synthpop gusto one expects from them.
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Glide Magazine
The melodies are good, but not as unique or memorable; the grooves are fun, but lacking the infectious hooks. While Screen Violence doesn’t quite meet the standards set early by the band, it’s still delightfully moody synth-pop that can be enjoyed equally whether on the dance floor or quietly contemplating the violence it depicts.
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The Skinny
CHVRCHES' new album explores how we live on, by, and through screens in the trio's signature sparkling synth-pop style.
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Clash Magazine
Essentially, ‘Screen Violence’ enjoys gouging into the heart of 2021, and offering it up to an unsuspecting stranger. CHVRCHES have cut a glistening gemstone out of the Covid zeitgeist and Clash is giddy with excitement to see what they come up with next.
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Gigwise
Their most intriguing record since their debut.
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AV Club
There’s only so much distance from the group’s debut, but the Glasgow band’s latest record gets deeper—and better—with repetition.
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DIY Magazine
Their most euphoric rallying cry to date.
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The Current
If there was any disconnect with the writing, recording, and producing of the new album, it certainly doesn't show in the new material, as Screen Violence exhibits all the traits of the classic CHVRCHES sound: strong vocals, strong sentiments, strong hooks. It's a house full of bangers in a time when we desperately need bangers, and CHVRCHES are happy to deliver.
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Stereoboard
This is accentuated in a sound that often comes on like Technicolor lightning, bright and mesmerising, yet devastating. There are moments when Chvrches do sound too comfortable and familiar, with tracks such as Violent Delights failing to take flight, but ‘Screen Violence’ manages to give a suitably unflattering filter to the chaotic pitfalls of life online. It’s exciting to think of the places this band will go next.
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Paste Magazine
The Scottish synth-pop trio retread well-trodden territory on their fourth album.
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Riff Magazine
Fans of Chvrches will find a good balance of familiar and new on Screen Violence, a solid effort for a band that continually delivers reliably great material.
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Loud and Quiet
Elsewhere, there’s breezy, reflective pop, like the handsome ‘California’ and ‘Final Girl’, the latter heavily imbued with the kind of ’80s-referencing synth that defined Paramore’s After Laughter. The Robert Smith collaboration ‘How Not to Drown’, meanwhile, provides an epic centrepiece; whilst never quite hitting the heights of those massive early singles, Screen Violence is the sound of Chvrches back on track.
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Beats Per Minute
It’s a considerable improvement over the absolute mess that was Love is Dead, at the very least, but they’ve taken a step a bit too far into their past to bounce back fully.
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Spectrum Culture
The trio may no longer sound as cutting edge as they did on their debut, but they’re certainly not going gently into the dark of their mid-career.
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Hotpress
Screen Violence gets ever-so-slightly sleepy in the middle, but overall, the back-to-basics approach works. Chvrches are firing on all cylinders again.
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Soundigest
Screen Violence is Chvrches Most Intriguing Album to Date.
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Cult MTL
Chvrches continue refining their trademark ’80s-inflected sound, while also daring to tread uncharted waters, resulting in another solid entry in the Glaswegians’ discography.
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The Boar
a refreshingly candid and dark return.
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B-Sides TV
Overall, ‘Screen Violence’ shed light towards the cons of heartbreak, stress and fame in a meaningful manner.
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The Forty-Five
The Scottish synth-pop band conjure up some of their early sound on album number four, a neon landscape of exploding synths and final girl fury.
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Richer Sounds
The album closes off like so many others, with a slower and almost acoustic number by comparison, Better If You Don’t. It may not be an original closing method, but as they say; if it ain’t broke… The track closes off what is frankly, one of the best albums of 2021. With social conscience, chaos, intimacy and most importantly, spectacular music.
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SF Sonic
After so many years of innovating and expanding their sound, Chvrches have managed to make their most complete album, no small feat considering the difficult circumstances surrounding its creation during the COVID-19 crisis.
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Sputnik Music
Screen Violence is punchy, complex and organic; at its worst, it leaves you wondering what the next song - or album - will entail.
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Louder Than War
Dark and moody it may be but the huge majesty that is the watermark of the band’s sound, and what first attracted me to the band from the moment I heard Lies way back when, is there in bucketloads. In all, making this album an emotionally uplifting listen. Even as the addictively moody synth rhythms perform a virtual trepanation on your skull and lodge themselves firmly in your cerebral cortex.
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The Upcoming
Chvrches make good use of production and effects to create multidimensional meanings from one signature sound in Screen Violence. This record is perfectly well constructed in terms of track listing, with songs like California, Violent Delights, How Not to Drown and Final Girl following one after the other – using the same themes of cinematic, literary and water imagery.
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Northern Transmissions
Sonically and overall ‘Screen Violence’ feels like a huge leap forward for CHVRCHES; as a group who’ve worked their way up festival bills and to bigger venues over their decade as a group, their fourth album is custom built to fill those colossal expanses. Everything appears bigger, sometimes poppier, more dramatic and with a clenched fist determination. Even when Mayberry is recounting her many encounters with the weight of expectation and unwanted commentators, the album always projects confidence – even in its most fragile of instances.
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Alt Revue
CHVRCHES have again positioned themselves at the top of the synth-pop world with their infectious beats, awesome hooks, and fantastic lyrics. This release again shows why CHVRCHES are among the best in the business and should continue the sort immense success they've seen thus far in their career. All of which is well deserved.
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Slant Magazine
Chvrches’s Screen Violence Transforms Hopelessness Into Inspiration.
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NARC Magazine
I have no hesitancy in saying that Screen Violence is a hit waiting to happen. From single Good Girls right through to final track Better If You Don’t, it has that rare quality; it feels incredibly nostalgic whilst being totally new.
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Vinyl Chapters
The excellence of Screen Violence is threefold. It lies in the album’s overall themes (self-reflection and the prevalence of technology in the band’s career and lives), musical broad brushstrokes (signature production and sound) and the finer details (lyric setting). This combination creates an effect that is nothing short of captivating.
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Music Matters Media
the sheer sonic excellence of Screen Violence makes a strong case to not nitpick at small faults and instead devote yourself fully to the ambiance.
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Earbuddy
Personally, I prefer CHVRCHES when they’re at their darkest, and Screen Violence turns the lights off frequently.
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The 13th Floor
Screen Violence is a very good album with musical muscle and powerful feminist views that is enjoyable and important to listen to.
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musicOMH
Chvrches are in a comfy place at the minute: their sound isn’t all that new or exciting anymore, but it’s still as enjoyable as ever, with more anthemic lyrics and shiny synths than you can shake a memory stick at.
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QRO Magazine
At their best, CHVRCHES manage to combine both the current musical trends of big electro-pop and searing female emotions, and if they aren’t always at that level, they still reach high.
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Tuned Up
Chvrches reveal all here. Screen Violence is a dark listen and one that tells tales of personal strife.
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The Independent
CHVRCHES slay with album and Robert Smith appearance.
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AllMusic
Not only is Screen Violence Chvrches’ finest work since The Bones of What You Believe, it’s also their most purposeful. It feels like they took stock of who they want to be and what they want to say, and these epic songs about letting go but holding onto the ability to feel make for a stunning creative rebirth.
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The Times
The Glaswegians go darker but keep their thrilling synth rush here.
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Stack
Once again the Scottish three-piece delight with their knack for infusing bittersweetness with immense warmth, investigating the conflicts that occur through and adjacent to our black mirrors via shimmering experiments into synth arpeggios and textured breakbeats. Lauren Mayberry’s singular voice remains the queen of this gleaming sonic habitat, though a guest spot from The Cure’s Robert Smith on How Not To Drown is a total treat.
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