WATCH: CHVRCHES Return With The Release Of “He Said She Said”
WATCH: CHVRCHES Return With The Release Of “He Said She Said”
This is the first single from the band in over four years
Words By: Jason Russo
After a three year hiatus from the release of their lauded 2018 LP Love Is Dead, CHVRCHES have returned with their latest single and video “He Said She Said.” The track is quintessential CHVRCHES, laden with 80s synths and Lauren Mayberry’s distinctive soprano vocals. And yet, “He Said She Said” is clearly one with cutting-edge production and styles influenced by the current electro-pop scene. Fans of Prinze George, MS MR, and Purity Ring will definitely vibe with the latest influences on their iconic, heavy-hitting electronic sound.
“He Said She Said” wrestles with the frustrations of the male gaze and the impossible standards it places on women in our society. Mayberry sings: “He said, ‘You need to be fеd’/’But keep an eye on your waistline’ and/’Look good, but don’t bе obsessed’/Keep thinkin’ over, over.” She highlights the absurdity of these requests from this man, and cascades into the chorus singing “I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
“‘He Said She Said’ is my way of reckoning with things I’ve accepted that I know I shouldn’t have. Things I pretended weren’t damaging to me,” says Mayberry of the track. “It was the first song we wrote when we started back up, and the opening line (‘He said, You bore me to death’) was the first lyric that came out. All the verse lines are tongue-in-cheek or paraphrased versions of things that have actually been said to me by men in my life. Being a woman is fucking exhausting and it felt better to scream it into a pop song than scream it into the void. After the past year, I think we can all relate to feeling like we’re losing our minds.”
The production on this track is cathartic to say the least. Perfectly used autotune harmonizes with Mayberry’s lead vocals to fully send the track into the chorus which will have you jumping up and down and flooring it on the highway. It’s the perfect song to break us into the summer while rallying against the toxic effects of misogyny.
The video for “He Said She Said” centers a revolving glass door, the kind you would see leading into a high rise building or an apartment building. Red tinged lights and latex outfits combine with chemicals and disturbing negative photos of teeth, bones, and body parts to add the mystique of the set design. We see Mayberry singing to us through vintage video effects and panels before finding herself trapped in the revolving doors as the camera wildly spins, showing us she has been trapped in these expectations all along. It’s a gorgeous and stylized experience that marks a new chapter for the group.
CHVRCHES is a trio comprised of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, and Martin Doherty. Born and largely influenced by their Scottish upbringing, their 2013 LP The Bones Of What You Believe In remains one of the most influential electro-pop/alternative records to date and a huge culmination in the renaissance of pop music. Tracks like “The Mother We Share” and “Recover” were hugely successful and charted in the Top 10 in the U.K. and U.S.. Their following two albums, Every Open Eye and Love Is Dead were met with similar acclaim. Following an extensive world tour, the band ended up isolating separately in L.A. and Glasgow due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were struck with the daunting task of recording music from entirely different continents. The effort clearly paid off as “He Said She Said” has already been a huge success. Stay tuned for more from CHVRCHES!
