Since releasing The Bones of What You Believe in 2013, Scottish trio CHVRCHES have gone from a promising indie act to one of music’s most critically acclaimed bands. Seriously, they are beloved by everyone, to quote 30 Rock’s Jack Donaghy, with “two ears and a heart.” This meant that when it came time for the band to release Every Open Eye, their much anticipated sophomore effort, the entire world was watching.
Luckily for them, Every Open Eye builds on The Bones of What You Believe in all the right ways. While there isn’t much difference between the two albums on paper, Every Open Eye sounds grander without being grandiose. Somehow, this time around, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty have figured out how to make a couple of keyboards sound like a full band.
But as with anything even tangentially related to CHVRCHES, frontwoman Lauren Mayberry is the focal point here. And with all the battles she’s fought with internet trolls and misogynists over the past couple years, Every Open Eye serves as her “hi hater” record, a reminder that no matter what a bunch of bros with keyboard muscles do, she can create something wonderful in spite of it.
Mayberry’s voice, which is still so aggressively Scottish it makes Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison sound like Garth Brooks, has never sounded better. She’s always been an expert at phrasing, and the one-two punch of “Never Ending Circles” and “Leave a Trace” kick the album off with strained emotion, and “Clearest Blue” sees it build into the record’s explosive climax.
If there’s anything negative that could be said about Every Open Eye, it’s that it doesn’t go on forever; by the time you reach closer “Afterglow,” you don’t want it to stop. At least that’s how I feel: Since I first heard the album, I’ve kept it on repeat because I never want it to end. And if CHVRCHES’ catalog thus far is any indication, I’ll have a lot more albums like this to look forward to in the future.