Album Review: Vicious Creature by Lauren Mayberry

Lauren Mayberry's Vicious Creature marks a compelling recalibration for an artist who has spent the past decade as one of the most captivating voices in modern synth-pop. As the frontwoman of CHVRCHES, her crystalline vocals became synonymous with glittering '80s-tinged anthems. While she hadn't reached a creative impasse with CHVRCHES, Mayberry certainly felt a desire to explore music on her own terms.

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Debut solo album from Chvrches singer showcases an intriguing, off-kilter pop edge Lauren Mayberry is, of course, the voice of Chvrches, the trio whose synth-pop anthems have bridged the tricky divide of appealing to both indie and pop fans. Now, 11 years after Chvrches debut album The Bones Of What You Believe was released, it’s time for Mayberry to go solo. Vicious Creatures is unlikely to scare off any long-term Chvches fans, but it does demonstrate a new side to Mayberry.

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Watching Lauren Mayberry's evolution as a frontwoman over the past thirteen years has certainly been captivating, with her confidence and creativity growing around each of Chvrches' album releases. So, when the Glasgow native announced her solo foray with the haunting single 'Are You Awake' and a slew of live shows last September, it felt like the start of a truly exciting new era for the singer. What was less expected, however, was that it'd take well over a year for her debut full-length to land.

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For millennial indie veterans, it’s hard to imagine that CHVRCHES' debut came out eleven years ago. It’s been a wild ride for the band, growing from being Scotland’s latest indie darlings to touring the world and collaborating with the likes of Hayley Williams and Robert Smith. Key to their success has been the pirouetting presence of Lauren Mayberry, whose refreshingly accented vocals and poignant lyrics have given CHVRCHES the edge in a sea of synth-pop acts.

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Over the last decade, Chvrches singer Lauren Mayberry's lyrics have grown increasingly concerned with the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated industry. The duo's 2021 album Screen Violence drew largely on the experiences that Mayberry has had with creeps and stalkers, and her first solo album, Vicious Creature, continues to pose difficult questions about life as a female musician in a business that forces her to admit, as she does "Change Shapes," that "we're all snakes. " Vicious Creature allows Mayberry to more fully embrace the persona of a ruthless, take-no-shit diva that she adopted on Chvrches's "Gun" and "We Sink.

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