Oh sure, I should substantiate.

I reheard a part of the album before this post, so my initial reaction is slightly diluted, but I promise you that I haven't reheard enough of it to forget my initial reaction. This may be a long reply, and will (obviously) be very subjective and personal.

Fair Warning: Airing of extremely subjective views commences.

For me, CHVRCHES represents one of several bands that tries to revive the old version of synthpop. On my first listen they struck me as being synthpop in the vein of Depeche Mode, who were no doubt inspired heavily by Gary Numan and The Tubeway Army, and early Duran Duran, albeit with a different vocal texture, given that the lead vocalist is a woman. I first heard them on a KEXP podcast that featured a song of theirs, and was intrigued enough to listen to a bit more. There were two similar bands I was into at the time that might have had an effect on my views - Purity Ring and Crystal Castles. Anyone who was a silent and overjoyed part of the Lofticries boom would probably recall their first reaction to that song. I was blown away; I didn't know that you could do the things they did. Never since I first put on Loveless did I think the female voice could be such a powerful instrument. Crystal Castles, on the other hand, seemed to be a bit of an AC band. Some of their stuff was unbelievable, the rest was not at all good, but they always had something very interesting to say. Their version of Lovers Who Uncover is still one of my favourite reinterpretations of any song. I heard what was then the new CHVRCHES album in this context, and my views only make sense given this context. That year saw so many innovations in electronic music - from James Blake to the aforementioned Crystal Castles. In this setting, I found The Bones of What You Believe less challenging, and felt that a lot of what CHVRCHES had to say had been said before. I was probably wrong, but I felt that I could get the same and more listening to other albums that were released that very year.

To be fair, not all of my views were so crystalline. (Crystalline reminds me of Crystallize, I quite liked The xx too around that time, not so much now.) I was probably biased by the fact that they replaced a v with a u, something that seemed so stereotypically indie - BEAR/FVCE and what not. I'm ashamed that this had such a significant part to play in my decision, but it probably did. I also recognise that most albums worth discussing are not the kind that grab you by the collar at the first listen, and seeing that I didn't give these guys much more than that, it isn't fair for me not to give them another go, which is why I said what I did. So yeah, that's it.

I'm going to put the album back on after this post, give it a few more listens before I pass judgment, but that's about the crux of it, I guess.

I hope this makes sense, and doesn't seems like self-important stream-of-consciousness rambling. Let me know what you think.