Photo Credit: Sebastian Mlynarski & Kevin J Thomson
Today, CHVRCHES have shared their new single ‘Good Girls’, taken from their forthcoming fourth studio album Screen Violence, set for release on August 27 via EMI Records (UK) and Glassnote (US). The single was premiered today as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record on BBC Radio 1. Alongside the new single, the band have announced details of their 2022 UK tour, kicking off next March.
‘Good Girls’ was the second song the band wrote for the new album, setting the lyrical tone for Screen Violence. Frontwoman Lauren Mayberry’s powerful vocal delivers the unapologetic and vital lyrics on the misogynistic ideals inflicted upon women with urgency: “Good girls don’t cry / And good girls don’t lie / And good girls justify but I don’t / Good girls don’t die / And good girls stay alive / And good girls satisfy but I won’t”.
Discussing the single, Lauren says: “The opening line (killing your idols is a chore) was something I wrote after listening to some friends arguing about the present day implications of loving certain problematic male artists – I was struck by the lengths that people would go to in order to excuse their heroes and how that was so juxtaposed to my own experiences in the world. Women have to constantly justify their right to exist and negotiate for their own space. We’re told that Bad Things don’t happen to Good Girls. That if you curate yourself to fit the ideal – keep yourself small and safe and acceptable – you will be alright, and it’s just not fucking true.”
‘Good Girls’ follows on from previous single ‘How Not To Drown’ featuring one of the band’s musical heroes, The Cure frontman Robert Smith, released in June alongside the announcement of Screen Violence and premiered via Zane Lowe who interviewed the band for their first ever interview with Smith. The accompanying official video featured both CHVRCHES and Robert Smith, with its claustrophobic, film-noir imagery a continuation of the aesthetic presented with the album’s debut single ‘He Said She Said’. Following its release, Robert Smith also remixed the single, telling The FADER he wanted his version of the single to “conjure up an irresistible midnight sea with dark mesmeric currents”.
Alongside the release of their new single, CHVRCHES have also today announced details of their 2022 UK tour. Kicking off in Scotland, the band are travelling to Newcastle, London and Birmingham, before culminating in Manchester. Fans who have pre-ordered the album from the official CHVRCHES UK Music store (https://CHVRCHES.lnk.to/Store) before 4PM on Tuesday 20th July will receive pre-sale access to tickets on July 21. Tickets go on general sale at 9:30AM BST on Friday 23rd July. For more information and tickets, please visit www.chvrch.es
CHVRCHES – 2022 UK Tour Dates Monday 14 March – Edinburgh – Corn Exchange Tuesday 15 March – Newcastle – O2 City Hall Wednesday 16 March – London – O2 Academy Brixton Friday 18 March – Birmingham – O2 Academy Saturday 19 March – Manchester – O2 Apollo
Screen Violence was originally conceived as a name for the band. A decade later, and during a pandemic when the reality of screen violence has never been more pertinent, struggling to make the people you love feel more than the characters on a TV show, and experiencing a world of trauma as if it were another, CHVRCHES revived the term for their forthcoming album title. Narrating the theme of screen violence in three main forms – on screen, by screens and through screens – the album touches on feelings of loneliness, disillusionment, fear, heartbreak and regret.
Screen Violence was recorded almost entirely remotely between Los Angeles and Glasgow where members Lauren Mayberry, Martin Doherty and Iain Cook self-produced and mixed the album via video calls and audio sharing programs to create something that is unique and special, but inherently CHVRCHES.
The making of Screen Violence also marked a decade together for the band – a decade whose sound they have helped to create and define from their 2013 breakthrough The Bones of What You Believe and 2015’s Every Open Eye, to their most recent 2018’s Love is Dead.
