Lauren Mayberry

Albums

Lauren Mayberry – Vicious Creature

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Probably my most anticipated album for this year, it felt like it had ended up delayed and delayed. I was feeling pretty hyped over a year ago, during the initial tour, and managed to keep that hype going pretty strong, thankfully. Being hyped doesn’t always make bias though, I have had plenty of albums I was excited for completely fizzle out.

This is not one of those. If I have any issue with this album, and its not a big one because its something a LOT of albums suffer from these days, its the lack of overall cohesion. Every track is really great. There isn’t really any sort of overall theme or flow holding them together.

And like I said, a lot of albums suffer from this. But, for a related example, CHVRCHES’ Screen Violence did not. It had a theme and a flow. I suppose Vicious Creature has a bit of a theme of nostalgic tribute to a lot of older acts, with some undercurrents of empowerment despite doubt. But it doesn’t really feel as there as it could be.

Anyway, about half the songs were featured during the initial tour set list (Bird and *Under the Knife *did not make the cut). There have also been several singles put out over the last year or so leading up to release. Before getting into the album itself, I am a bit disappointed Bird did not make the but, but Under the Knife was my least favorite from the tour setlist, so I am not super sad it didn’t.

I figure I will just run through the tracks and give some thoughts on each. Something in the Air was the first new single we got that wasn’t already known. I believe in an interview she said it was inspired by an older British musician who had been talking conspiracy thoughts to her at one point. I really like this track, and the low-fi into bit works well as the album opener. I really love the build-up and the chorus riffs. It also feels like there is a bit of an undertone commentary on the world a bit with the whole “screaming through a red white and blue megaphone (the colors of the US and Britain, and “patriotism”) about conspiracy theories, while “I just wanna be someone (someone) who’s happy…”

Like, just leave people alone with your crazy nonsense.

Crocodile Tears is the second track, with themes of toxic masculinity, which kind of carries over a bit from Something in the Air. I really like this track as well and it was one of my favorites from the tour set. I love the thumping beats of this one in general, and the lyrics are fun.

Another tour track, and also one of the singles, Shame comes into slot three. While I do like the break out part near the end of the song, I have actually started to dislike this song a bit over time. I can’t really place why, maybe its just gotten a bit repetitious. Shame is followed by a nice little low key number, Anywhere But Dancing. It almost feels like a bit of a love song but its laced with melancholia in its tones and lyrics.

Next up, two new tracks. Punch Drunk, a song I can’t decide if I really like or really dislike. I feel like I just kind of really dislike the first half, but I really like the back half. The first of two piano ballads comes in with Oh Mother. It’s a sober and personal feeling track about family relationship changing over time. Its probably arguably the best song on the album, but I am not really into this style of song and I mostly skip over Oh Mother.

Things take a sharp turn though with Sorry, Etc, my initial favorite song, and favorite from the tour set. It’s a fast, loud, and angry rock track. Despite what people seem to be thinking, it is NOT some sort of breakup record towards CHVRCHES. Its intended as a commentary on the fame industry as a whole. I want to say I saw one comment that it was a comment on the often actual abuse that occurs with young people in the music and acting industry.

Whatever the case, I love it, a lot. To some extent for my own personal reasons.

Sorry, etc is followed by the pop-bop Change Shapes. I like Change Shapes a lot for its upbeat pop sound for sure, but I kind of feel like over time I may get a bit tired of it from over-listening, like Shame. Mantra follows up next, while I like this track, I can see it being disliked a bit. It’s very repetitious, but also, intentionally so, because, “I will say the mantra, until it is a curse.” I like the increasing distortion on the repeating “I want it” mantra.

The next two are both new again, and definitely my favorite and growing favorite from the album. Work of Fiction is definitely my favorite from the album at this point. I love the quick running lyrics and rhythm. I love the sort of, double meaning of the chorus.

“What if all I want is a work of fiction?”

What if all I want is an unachievable lie? What if all I want is to escape from everything awful into a fake reality?

Maybe I am reading too much into it.

Anyway, the release single comes next with Sunday Best, which is just an all around solid track, but I particularly like the break out moment that has a strong feel of “preaching” to it, in a song called “Sunday Best,” which is a teem used for “Church clothes.”. Then of course the third tier of that with Lauren being the frontwoman for CHVRCHES.

The final track is another piano ballad, and the first single from the album Are You Awake. I don’t have a lot to say about it other than it’s my least favorite track from the album, and I am glad it’s the last one

Live Shows Weekly Wrap Up

2023.09.24 – Weekly Wrap Up (09.17.2023 – 09.23.2023)

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I am bad at selfies.  I added one last week to these little journal posts and I wanted one for this week but they are kind of bad.  Or maybe I am just bad at looking excited.

Anyway, I’m not late, I am intentionally not on time, because I was busy yesterday.  I spent almost all day in Champaign (Urbana technically) at the Pygmalion event at the Rose Bowl Tavern.  I’m actually not sure if there is one of these or more of them per year, but it’s apparently the 19th year.  It’s a little craft vendor fair alongside a bunch of musical acts both indoor and outdoor.  I primarily went to see Lauren Mayberry’s first solo tour.  But I also like music, so I went early to see all of the outdoor shows.  There was swap flip-flopping between in and out on the schedule, I didn’t want to lose my spot up front, so I just stayed outside.  There were other Lauren/CHVRCHES fans there doing the same, which isn’t surprising.

Overall I saw 6 acts total, one of the scheduled outdoor acts, ggwendolyn, had to cancel.  This also meant the schedule got compacted up and while it was originally supposed to start at 1:45, things didn’t start until 2:45.  So I got there early, and then got to wait a bit longer than expected.  Not a huge deal.  I got to watch them doing the soundcheck, which, at least for me, was super interesting.  This guy, we’ll call him Bob, because that was his name, everyone on stage called him that, would go around checking mics and making sure things work then he’d head into the “crowd” and have band members do tests to balance things out.  Then they would all adjust their little personal directional speakers for levels on the various tracks (vocals, drums, guitars, etc.) on a personalized basis.  All from a little portable wireless pad.  It was neat.

Also, I say “crowd” because at this stage of the day, there were, maybe 20-30 people mingling around the small parking lot area where the shows took place.    As the day went on, the bands became clearly more and more professional about how they operated, and basically just, produced better and better sound.  As as that progressed, the crowd size grew and grew.  It was fun to watch actually.  From fairly basic setups to more and more complex setups, from using the house speakers for the feedback audio to using in-ear headsets.  From just, checking the watch after every song to see how much time there was to play, to having a full-on set list, ready and set up and available.  From random comments about writing up songs because of “X”, to having full-on fun little stories.

Anyway, I saw, in order:

  • Emily the Band – She mentioned that she went to school at U of I in Champaign and had played at the Rose Bowl Tavern a few times, so they seem to more or less be a local band.  It was the first time they got to play on the main stage.    I enjoyed their set and they seemed like they were having a fun time all around.
  • Fiona Kimble – She was alright, though probably my least favorite of the day.  The easy comment here is, it felt like there were too many people on stage, but then she said the pianist had come in special and they did a couple of duet songs, so well, maybe it felt like too many people because they had a bonus person in their set.
  • Lutalo – I really enjoyed his set.  It was very low key, basically finger-picking folk music on an electric guitar.  Dude seemed to really get into his songs too.
  • Tim Atlas – Dude was really good, and they hit all the right notes of having a band that felt like they all were really having a good time while putting out some good, varied music.  The guitarist also had a talk box (think Peter Frampton, Do You Feel Like We Do), for one song, which was fun.
  • Claud – The only artist I managed to get around to listening to before the show, and it’s funny how much that changes one’s perception.  I also found that I really enjoyed Claud’s music, from my before the show listening, and I was already kind of a fan, because it’s enjoyable.  I don’t really know why but it kind of reminds me of sort of, toned down a bit King Princess.  Just the vocal styling, the lyrics, and all that.  I want to listen to more of the artists I saw but probably Claud most of all.
  • Lauren Mayberry – Ok, Claud most of all, behind the obvious.  I tried to mostly avoid watching other people’s videos of Lauren’s solo tour, so I could mostly go into this show blind.  I had already listened to the one single, *Are You Awake*, and I had listened to *Crocodile Tears* beforehand.  It was all great, and definitely a good different feel from Chvrches.  Kind of reminds me a bit of Wolf Alice maybe.  Probably my favorite was the final track, *Sorry Etc*, which is one extreme end of the styling and very very “screamo punk rock” style.  The other end probably being *Are You Awake*.  Also, probably just because of where I ended up standing up front on the end of the stage when she came to my side of the stage, she seemed to be “angry face screaming” a few times like right at me.  

    Please don’t want to kill me Lauren, I’m sorry, etc.

Anyway, I’ll probably make a gallery of my photos at some point, though they aren’t real amazing, my phone’s camera isn’t super great.  I had asked them about bringing my proper camera and it was in the car but I decided it was too much of a hassle.  

I did have a fun good sign moment before the show.  I had stopped in a few stores over in Champaign before the show, and when I walked into Five Below, there was a familiar voice on the radio, with the CHVRCHES/Marshmallow collab track Here With Me.  It took me a minute to place the song because I don’t really listen to it, basically ever.  I keep forgetting it exists, which is funny because in some ways it may be the most popular CHVRCHES track due to the Marshmello exposure.

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful aside from Friday evening.  I went and met up with my parents and brother and a couple of my nieces and we went to watch the Route 66 Carshow parade in Springfield.  I didn’t end up taking any photos, but it was fun.  Basically, a lot of the classic cars that are in the show itself all just, drive to downtown.  They go a pretty good distance, as they start down near Dirksen and Stevenson Drive and go downtown.  I realize this is meaningless to most people but this means they go 3 miles or so up Stevenson and then 3 miles or so up 6th Street to downtown Springfield.  It’s a good distance on some main throughways in the city, especially for a bunch of classic show cars.  Also, there is a police presence, but they also don’t block the roads, so there are just, regular cars driving around them.

I’m sure I’ll write up on it eventually, but I also kind of spur of the moment updated my PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11. It’s mostly the same honestly. I hate how I can’t dock the taskbar to the side though and I immediately changed is the centering on it though because the centered icons is functionally garbage and it’s ugly as shit. I also found a cheap price to update it to the Pro version from Windows Home. There are a few virtualization things that are only in Pro, but also only Pro allows for Remote Desktop access. It’s actually something I have been wanting to do even in Windows 10, for the same reasons. Also, in theory, I think Pro has fewer ads stuck in it, because well, you’re paying for it.

On Friday before going to Springfield I had the day off so we also put out the fall decorations around the outside of the house, though they aren’t completely finished. Also a few indoor ones but my wife does all that, I just haul totes around for that.

Activity Log

I’m not going to go into it all, but one of the stores I went to was Ollie’s.  Which I’ve been to elsewhere years ago when traveling, but this one opened up recently, closer to where I live.  It’s basically a closeout store, lots of stuff for like, 75% less than what it would have been originally.  They had a ton of Marvel Legends I didn’t care much about, and a few Star Wars Black Series I didn’t care about.  What I did pick up was a pile of Fortnite stuff.  Also, they had a bunch of Eternals Marvel Legends, which I have most of from previous markdowns, but I picked up Ajak, which was the only one I didn’t have.  I kind of really like the design of the Eternals, but I they are also all very samey looking, with almost no accessories, which made the figures a huge turn-off at the standard ML pricing.  I’ve managed to collect them all at like half price or below, which is just fine for me.

Not much else otherwise this week.