Love Is Dead (Chvrches album)

In September 2015, the band released their second studio album, Every Open Eye, two years after the release of their critically acclaimed debut album, The Bones of What You Believe. It received positive reviews and spawned the singles "Leave a Trace", "Clearest Blue", "Never Ending Circles" and "Empty Threat". Besides releasing the song "Warning Call", cowritten with Solar Fields, for the game Mirror's Edge Catalyst, and releasing a version of "Bury It" with Paramore's Hayley Williams, the band stayed relatively quiet for the rest of the year and the next.

On 1 January 2018, Martin Doherty announced that the band would release an album within the year.[14] That same month, Lauren Mayberry "accidentally" confirmed this and revealed the album's title in an interview, which has been since deleted.[15] On 26 February, the band revealed the tracklist to the album on Twitter.[16]

The band started working on Love Is Dead on 7 February 2017 in Los Angeles.[17] In 24 February, David Stewart, formerly one-half of the musical duo Eurythmics, revealed that he was in the studio with the band.[18] Greg Kurstin was revealed as a producer for the album on 12 December, with work nearing completion.[19] According to an article from The Independent, the band opted for more universal topics instead of introspection during production, jotting down ideas in a notebook whenever an opportunity passed.[20]

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the band described their work with Kurstin as "the most pop stuff we've done and also the most aggressive and vulnerable at the same time".[21][22][23] On Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show, on the premiere of "Get Out", Mayberry said that:

After Every Open Eye, we went back into a little writing studio—this time in New York—but we still wanted to take a little time to work out where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. We decided this time we wanted to work with a producer. I think it was really good for us to be pushed to do things differently and take risks.

She also explained the album would take an "honest" approach.

If it's going to be more pop it should be more aggressively pop—there's no doing things in half measures. It was nice to not be second guessing ourselves. It's still consistent with what we've done before but it feels like it'll be more of a live experience.[24]

The album's lead single, "Get Out", premiered on BBC Radio 1 on 31 January 2018, where Annie Mac dubbed it the Hottest Record in the World; it was released the same day.[25] The second single, "My Enemy", featuring vocals from Matt Berninger of The National, was named Zane Lowe's World Record when it premiered on Beats 1 in 28 February, after the tracklist and artwork reveal.[26] "Never Say Die" was released on 29 March, the third single from the album.[27] Premiered on BBC Radio 1, "Miracle" was released on 10 April as the fourth and final single. It is the album's only song recorded in the United Kingdom.[28]

Prior to the release of "Get Out", and after wiping all of their social media accounts, the band released a short video with a weblink captioned "GET IN", which contained a link that would lead to a Facebook Messenger page made by the band.[29][30] Furthermore, in the music video for the respective single, alongside Matt Berninger taping an advertisement, a poster advertised a phone number. When called, Mayberry reads part of the lyrics to "My Enemy".[31]

Prior to the official release, the band celebrated the upcoming album with a release party by performing live at iHeartRadio Album Release Party in New York City on 22 May. During the show, they debuted some of the new music for the first time, including songs like "God's Plan", "Graffiti" and "Forever".[32]

Love Is Dead debuted at number seven on the UK Albums Chart, selling 11,763 copies in its first week.[33] The album debuted at number 11 on the US Billboard 200 as well as number 1 on the Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums chart with 28,000 album equivalent units.[34]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Love Is Dead.[37]

In support of their new album, Chvrches played live worldwide in the festival circuit and venues between 2018 and 2019. The tour officially started on 25 May 2018, with a free show at House Of Vans in London to celebrate the release of their album, but an early album release party held at iHeartRadio Theatre in New York[59] and other two previous shows (19 May 2018 - The Josie Dye One Year Anniversary Show at Danforth Music Hall in Toronto and 21 May 2018 - Elsewhere, Brooklyn, NY) are generally considered as part of the tour based on their common setlist and stage design. On 10 December 2019, the band announced the official end of the tour with a message posted on their blog.[60] The band performed in over 20 countries, attending more than 150 events. For the very first time since their formation, the band added a live drummer, Jonny Scott, to their touring lineup.[61]

Setlist

Chvrches performing live at The Greek Theatre in Griffith Park, Los Angeles in 2018

While the played setlist varied slightly with each show, the typical setlist contained:

1. "Get Out"
2. "Bury It"
3. "Gun"
4. "We Sink"
5. "Graffiti"
6. "Graves"
7. "Miracle"
8. "Under the Tide"
9. "Science/Visions"
10. "Forever"
11. "Recover"
12. "Leave a Trace"
13. "Clearest Blue"
14. "Never Say Die"
15. "The Mother We Share"