Chvrches have been teasing the music world with several highly impressive singles over the summer, and ‘The Bones Of What You Believe’ has quickly became one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Said singles Mother We Share, Gun and Recover all feature on the tracklist, so before we even slip on our headphones, we have three tracks that we can already rave about. The challenge for Chvrches is to prove they can produce a whole album that is up to the standard of their singles.

The Mother We Share is the opener and immediately establishes a unique sound that will characterise the whole album. At the heart of nearly every song is a chorus that is immediately catchy and engaging.  The band show their versatility by covering a whole range of emotions and feelings over the course of the album; from the upbeat bounce of The Mother We Share to the reflective Tether, Chvrches have something for everyone. Tether in particular is a stunner, with Mayberry’s tender vocals leading into a glorious synth outro; it perhaps would have made a brilliant closer to the album, but is nonetheless a powerful tune.

The luscious synth-pop soundscape is wonderfully completed by the gorgeous vocals of Lauren Mayberry. Accents among singers are quite common, but rarely do the soft intonations that stem from Mayberry’s Scottish brogue have such a huge, yet extremely positive affect on the overall quality of the vocals. Combined with the sheer quality her voice possesses, Mayberry is easily one of the most unique and distinctive vocalists around. Refreshingly, Cook’s voice, which feature quite prominently as backing vocals and takes lead duties on Under The Tide, presents an interesting alternative to Mayberry. Of course Cook isn’t quite at the same level as Mayberry, but he does add a new feature to what is already an exceptionally well-rounded sound. There’s no doubt that Chvrches lived up to the hype on this record, delivering on the promise of the pre-released singles and achieving the ideal balance between dreamy, synth-heavy accompaniments and catchier, poppier hooks and choruses.