It was easy to approach Glasgow trio Chvrches' breakthrough single "The Mother We Share" with a degree of skepticism. After all, when you're an up-and-coming European electro-pop band trying to set yourself apart in a sea of soundalikes, titling your second single like a magnetic poetry scramble of one of the Knife's biggest hits doesn't exactly scream originality. But once you hit play, the song itself-- a soaring synth-pop meteorite centered around a sky-high chorus-- had enough transcendent pop power to turn cynics to devotees in three minutes flat. Same went for "Lies", the thumping debut single on which singer Lauren Mayberry declared her ability to "make a true believer of anyone." Something about Chvrches' pulsing, neon-brite music is like skepticism's kryptonite; their songs are executed wholeheartedly, driven by themes of belief, devotion, and discovery, and imbued with an unabashed sense of wonder. The ornate, sparkling eye make-up that Mayberry sports on stage is the perfect visual metaphor for their sound: It's as though she's trying to make her eyes wider in an attempt to take in as much of the world as she can.
Chvrches came together spontaneously in late 2011, when Iain Cook and Martin Doherty asked Mayberry to sing on some tracks they'd been producing and were pleasantly surprised with the results. As a trio, they're something of a hodgepodge. All three have been in bands but never one that sounds anything like this: Mayberry used to sing in the folky indie pop outfit Blue Sky Archives, Cook played with muted post-rockers Aereogramme, and Doherty was a touring member of the rumbling Glaswegian thunderclouds the Twilight Sad. Despite their varied and somewhat gloomy pedigrees, Chvrches' first EP Recover shows the trio coming together to explore and embrace synth pop's artificial sunlight-- a far cry from the sensibility of the drizzly city that spawned them.
The title track of Recover, though, shines just as bright as Chvrches' first two singles, and it continues to hone a sound that's beginning to sound distinct from their electro-pop contemporaries. Chvrches have garnered plenty of comparisons to Purity Ring, but-- with the exception of the chopped-up Megan James-like vocal hiccups that open "Mother"-- the Glaswegians' music has little interest in deconstruction. Instead, Chvrches' music is all about the moment when everything comes together-- like when Cook and Doherty's panoramic synth vistas swoop beneath Mayberry's vocal melody on "Recover" to round out its anthemic chorus. While their sound often scans "80s" ("Now is the Time" channels some serious OMD vibes), Chvrches' sense of commanding, wall-shaking dynamism takes cues from dubstep. Occasionally (on the verses of "Time" in particular), Mayberry's delivery feels a little too stiff or meek to compete with the towering sounds around her. When she's on, though, her entrancing voice becomes Recover's centerpiece, giving these songs their human pulse. "You take what you need," she sings on the title track, "And I know you don't need me."
Doherty sings lead on "ZVVL", the EP's weakest track, and unlike Mayberry he doesn't quite have the charisma to take center stage. Though they're riding the strength of some very strong singles, the back half of Recover shows that Chvrches are still actively working out parts of their sound-- which, of course, is no great strike against a band that's only been together a little over a year. Still, what does feel almost preternaturally fully formed is Chvrches' melodic sensibility. (The sheer number of Chvrches remixes-- the best being Miaoux Miaoux's candy-coated take on "Mother"-- floating around right now is a testament to this.) As Chvrches prep their full-length debut for later this year, they're still honing the edge that's going to set them apart. But for the time being, the hooks are enough to convert plenty of true believers.
