A band’s very charismatic lead singer taking a break to record a solo album and going on tour is not an unusual occurrence. What made Lauren Mayberry’s solo effort an unusual occurrence is that at the time the album and tour were hastily announced, she had no songs!
By “no songs”, I mean no songs currently released. That problem was only nominally solved when she arrived at DC’s 9:30 Club for her first-ever solo show. By Monday night’s concert, she had released one song three days prior.
And so, a very excited crowd awaited with a sense of hopeful yet uncertain anticipation for Lauren Mayberry, the charismatic lead singer for the Scottish electro-pop band CHVRCHES. What would she sound like as a solo artist? The moody, keyboard-driven first single was quite the tease. That was very un-CHVRCHES-like. Would the rest of her material sound like that? Or what?
At the end of her high-energy 45-minute set, Lauren told us that she had given us all eight of the songs she has in her solo repertoire. She joked that she dove into the CHVRCHES archive and found that they had played seven songs on one of their first shows, and she was essentially one-upping that by playing a total of nine. That ninth song was an AMAZING cover of Madonna’s Like a Prayer that had the place going crazy. I really hope that’s on the album whenever it gets released (soon, pretty please?).
Every one of those eight orginals were fabulous and had a sound that was distinctly not like the band’s material. It’s like she needed to bring this music to life on her own. If I were to get music nerdy – and I am about to – I would describe many of the songs as having a spikey sophistication of Talking Heads[1] meets Alanis Morrissette’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie[2] vibe. I cannot wait for this album to drop.
A fun aspect of the rather hasty arrangement of this solo tour given CHVRCHES just coming off a successful global tour opening for Coldplay, were several false starts to the beginnings of songs. These were amusing and to be expected as her solo band had only been together for two weeks. Lauren handled her miscues well and her playful vulnerability in those moments added to a communal sense of experiencing something very new together.
For me, it was great being at the 9:30 Club for the first time since seeing Jungle in March of 2019. With my love of UK artists, it’s fitting that my last show pre-pandemic and first show post-pandemic were artists from London and Scotland.
And I cannot wait for Lauren to put out her album.
[1] A song like Life During Wartime.
[2] The reference to Alanis’ second album was given to me by My Daughter Diandra (MDC). I love my children.
Ray's Musings 
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