• News

• All

Oct 01, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Charlotte Patmore

Lauren Mayberry, singer with Scottish electro-pop trio CHVRCHES, has announced her debut solo album, Vicious Creature, and shared a new song from it, “Something in the Air.” The exact release date for the album has yet to be announced, only that it will be out later this year on Island. The tracklist and cover artwork also have yet to be shared. Check out “Something in the Air” below.

“‘Something in the Air’ is a song that really came out of nowhere,” explains Mayberry in a press release. “I was in London finishing another song with my friend, co-writer and producer Dan McDougall. We were taking a break in the shared kitchen in the studio complex when a pretty iconic British musician, who I won’t throw under the bus here, came in and started making conversation about electricity, 5G and how it’s making us all sick. Dan and I went for a walk around the block before going back to the studio and were unpacking those theories, and why people want to believe them—and the chorus lyric just appeared.”

A press release describes the album in greater detail: “Vicious Creature is both a startling new era in Lauren Mayberry’s artistry, and the culmination of two decades of the band life that came before. Across its songs she writes about sexuality and empowerment from a profoundly personal perspective for the very first time, reconnecting with the icons of her youth in Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, and Kathleen Hanna, and with the influence of ’90s British girl groups like All Saints and Sugababes.”

Mayberry’s debut solo single, “Are You Awake?,” was released in September 2024 and was one of our Songs of the Week. Then in October 2024 she shared her second solo single, “Shame,” which also made an appearance on our Songs of the Week list. In March she released her third solo single, “Change Shapes.” There’s no word yet if these songs are included on Vicious Creature.

CHVRCHES are signed to Island in America and EMI in England. The band’s last album was 2021’s Screen Violence, which came out via Glassnote.

Mayberry was one of the artists on the cover of our 20th Anniversary Issue in which she was interviewed about Screen Violence. Buy the issue from us directly here.

CHVRCHES were on the cover of one of our print issues in 2015 and you can read the in-depth 8-page 5,600-word cover story feature on the band here. You can also read our bonus digital magazine Q&A with them here.

Subscribe to Under the Radar’s print magazine.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.