Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the release of ‘The Bones of What You Believe’, CHVRCHES’ 2013 debut, vocalist Lauren Mayberry has decided to release her first solo songs. Her solo leap was anticipated with the announcement of a new tour that will bring Mayberry to Barcelona and Madrid on October 24 and 25, respectively.
Surprising was the first single, ‘Are You Awake?’, a piano ballad composed with Adele’s right-hand man, Tobias Jesso Jr. The second, ‘Shame’, arrived a few hours ago, and completely distances itself from the ballad format. to surrender to guitars and synthesizers. ‘Shame’ proposes a glam sound that may be reminiscent of St. Vincent.
‘Shame’ talks about the shame Lauren has felt for feeling sexually attracted to a type of toxic masculinity. Lauren gives as an example Troy Dyer, the character played by Ethan Hawke in the 1994 film ‘Reality Bites’, and also the ‘Woodstock 99’ festival, the “era of sex tapes” or the series ‘Girls Gone Wild’ . Mayberry claims that growing up with that type of culture in her formative years negatively influenced the development of her own sexuality, her relationships, and her “identity in the world.”
In ‘Shame’, Mayberry sings that she feels “schizophrenic” and that she “romanticizes the pain” and metaphorically compares her shame to the act of “drinking gasoline” while also being the “flame.” The shame reaches a desperate point when Ella Mayberry sings things like “how embarrassing to come this far and never be able to change.” Meanwhile, the sound of ‘Shame’ represents that conflict that Mayberry feels deep inside her. The musical context could not be more different from that of CHVRCHES.
