The Bones of What You Believe

I recognize a few of these tracks by title, but have never listened to this album start-to-finish.

This is pretty good. It feels a bit like Depeche Mode: electro-pop that feels like it's got a fair bit of rock influence. I'm not quite sure it rises to the level of adding it to my list of albums to listen to again though.

Call me Leo the way I love chvrches

Kleine 4 sterren, vanwege nostalgie en een aantal enorme hits. Ik wil wel benoemen dat deze plaat enorme problemen heeft: het heeft ge-aged als een glas melk en klinkt veel ouder dan het is, de productie is schel en lelijk en het album is veel langer dan het zou moeten zijn. Toch: nummers als The Mother We Share, Gun, Lies en Recover zijn super catchy en warm. Ben ook altijd groot fan van vocals waar je een accent, in dit geval Schots, doorheen kan horen. Onder aan de streep dus toch een leuk, maar flawed, debuut.

I’m at a 5.

That’s pretty slick synthpop; yes, it’s in the faux-80s style that later got a bit overdone to death by The Weeknd & others, but when it’s done this well in a way that just kind of feels futuristically freeing, I can’t find myself complaining too much about it. A lot of this album sits in a poppy, yet somber take on that style, with a lot of tracks dealing with relationships that lead singer Lauren Mayberry practically begs would end, or are riddled with so many issues that they’re probably just too untenable to maintain. It’s the topic of the album, and while it might lead to a little bit of a “this album is the same song 12 times” vibe, I think that undermines the writing (which does a good job of keeping tracks fresh), the vocal structures (all pretty catchy) & the variety in the production (it’s there, you just have to be paying attention). Lauren’s voice is a little high at first, but once you get used to it, she sounds quite nice. Whenever Martin Doherty comes in or takes over, his deeper tones clash well, playing into a good harmony.

My favorites here are “Gun”, “Under the Tide”, “Recover”, “Lungs”, & “By the Throat”, due to a mix of effective storytelling, really dynamic beat drops, and an energy that just feels vibrant to the ears (even if it contrasts with the lyrics at times). “By the Throat” might be my very favorite one, if only because I like the idea of shattering a seemingly golden life because you can recognize that it’s all a facade. “Recover” might have the best vocal structure on the album, though. I see why it has the second most plays on the album; there’s a big Porter Robinson energy to it that really hit for me. I think that might be why I liked this album a lot.

Overall, I’m impressed. A lot of these still feel like they could fit nicely into 2026, and while this style has been overdone in the 13 years since, I think this is a great early example of it. The band themselves producing this whole thing is a cherry on top; I love it when musicians can execute a vision in full totality, and with all the layers & complexities in putting these synths together, it would’ve been easy for some of it to feel a little too blown out in the mix or a little muddled. It sounds super clean though, and while that lack of grime might throw off some people (probably not the target audience anyway), I think it really worked for me. It helps that it’s got an indie game vibe to it throughout. I’m at a 5, and I’m glad it’s on the list.

Started off with vlog music lol.

Much better than I thought this was gonna be yet again. Always nice to be pleasantly surprised. Based on the name of the group, I thought it would be indie rock shite, but nah synth pop always has the ability to slay. Had a lovely walk to this, perhaps it gets a little bit samey after so many songs, but there were some class songs here, especially at the start.

It seems like they are good at what they do, but indie synth pop is just not very appealing to me. The 80's sheen is also something to which I am averse.

Sonido interesante, pero no me termina de atrapar. Siento que no destaca mucho aunque tengas algunas canciones buenas.

I have a soft spot for this era and genre of music. It makes me happy. Now there are no tracks on here that make me go we need to play this album, but I'd definitely throw it on for that 2010's vibe.

This passed me by when it was released - it came out when my kids were quite young so radio wasn’t getting much of a spin, more likely kids music!!!
Synth pop has a tendency to sound all a bit the same, which this can fall victim to at times, but sometimes a groove would punch through and I’d find myself nodding my head. I think the temptation with this sort of programmed stuff is to always have something happening, and to add layers, with the result that sometimes there is no space left in the recording. Not bad, and I will look to check out their later recordings, to see where they go from here

2.58

Electronica and EDM albums I have a hard time on where to place them on this list - but totally as hipster as I want to sound/look, this was a lot of fun.

Sure, is it a great example of Obama Era Recession Pop, absolutely. But maybe we millennials had a point in just enjoying it for a min before the facade came crumbling down?

The crunchy synths, millennial woah-oh-ah-oh-ohs and vocoders earmark The Bones of What You Believe as very of its time, but you have to love the extent to which they embrace the big fab pop moments in favour of everything else. They are courting DRAMA and producing the sound that early era Ellie Goulding promised but never delivered.

It’s not until Science/Visions where they get into something darker and weirder, like they dropped a trace of These New Puritans into the mix. It would have been nice to have more variety like this but you can’t deny that they're bundles of fun.

A few cool bits but quickly became annoying.

When I saw this album come up, I remembered “the mother we share” being huge when it came out, and I asked myself why I couldn’t recall the album. Then I listened and I got my answer. It’s fine. But nothing else rises to the level of that song.

I can see how this would be popular, but none of the ideas here are new. The extraordinarily twee singing on top of some derivative (but perfectly executed) synth drones became tiresome very quickly. Just go listen to Eurythmics or Yaz.

Se me ha hecho un poquito largo, creo que me gustan más los CHVRCHES más bombásticos de más adelante, pero igual mola.

Peak BBC radio 1 slop, nothing offensive but about as bland as it gets

2

Pleasant Scottish Indie Pop.

Strangely, just before finding this was by album of the day I played the Safety Net 7" by the Shop Assistants. Now that's Scottish Indie Pop!

Mixed feelings about this. If you listen to it as a pure pop album, it's pretty good. The songwriting is strong and unique, and I enjoy the retro-ish synths. But it is otherwise relatively toothless and has already aged kinda badly -- see the millennial whoops and edm risers.

It was fine … but ultimately a bit samey