The Bones of What You Believe

Chvrches is the sound of Scottish studio rats tapping the I-will-survive energy of disco triumphalism, often to dazzling effect. The Glasgow trio's second album builds on the stem-winding synth-surge of their arresting 2013 debut, The Bones of What You Believe. They're not big on verse-chorus structure, going instead for roiling anthems that start big and only get grander: "Clearest Blue" is Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" as an elephantine EDM high-five. All that open space gives singer Lauren Mayberry loads of room to celebrate the power of post-post-breakup freedom ("Bury it and rise above!" she sings on "Bury It"), almost as if the fun of leaving fools in the dirt is better than love itself.