#71

#71. CHVRCHES - Clearest Blue (#51, 2015)

15th of 2015

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I feel like in the absence of a major viral or nostalgic hit (I'm not counting the Marshmello one), CHVRCHES don't necessarily get a lot of credit nowadays. This is the 7th time I'm writing about them, and there's another one that'll come after that. This is quite a lot to just sweep under the rug. In that sense, the historical record is there to cherish CHVRCHES in the long run, but I fear it'll only be at best on a superficial level. Just picking out the smallest morsels because curiosity won't run much deeper.

It is therefore my duty to report that "Every Open Eye" is an absolute gem of an album. It might get lost a little behind their debut album which had bigger hits and more direct appeal, but this is the sound of a band that absolutely tightened up their work and created an incredible body of work for it. It was released right around the same time as Carly Rae Jepsen's "E•MO•TION", which is another great album that does get its flowers, but alas, the only flowers you'll see here are the partially pixelated ones on the album cover.

I just think the whole thing comes together so well. Rarely is a moment wasted, and they'll have you potentially re-evaluating just what synth pop is capable of. I've not heard another CHVRCHES album that quite lives up to this one, but they do continue to find isolated sparks along the way. I think their 2021 song "California" would fit pretty snugly on this album. I just love all the big, encompassing sounds they come through with, as well as melodies that take unexpected left turns. "Keep You on My Side" has this wonderful frenetic pace to it, while "Playing Dead" has a big lift to match the initial stakes it lays out on the chorus. I wasn't especially fond of when Martin had lead vocals on the first album, but I think he fares better this time around. One of those albums where you're on such a high that I don't even want to stop ahead of the bonus tracks. To be fair, one of those is "Get Away" (#555) but they're all good.

I can understand the logic behind making "Leave A Trace" (#300) the lead single here. It's a clear, direct statement. I do feel however that "Clearest Blue" as the 3rd single is the big hold out we were waiting for. It almost feels like it's still making you wait for a while, until it decides to enter the pantheon of all-time great pivots. I'm talking "Dance Yrself Clean", "Nights", "Clearest Blue". You get the briefest warning before the song turns into an all-out rave. The obvious comparison point is Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough", but it's not living in that song's shadow at all. Just the sheer commitment to the moment, the intensity of it. It's all just incredibly satisfying, in a way that's simultaneously par for the course on this album, but also completely singular and nothing like anything else on it. CHVRCHES easily could've run into the typical sophomore slump that comes with reduced buzz on return, but the material was just too good to possibly deny. They made me a fan for life on this one. Hopefully that's meeting them more than halfway.