Chvrches announce 10th anniversary edition of debut album

Chvrches have announced a special 10th anniversary edition of their debut album The Bones Of What You Believe.

The Scottish trio released their debut album in September 2013, and it will be revamped with new material and unheard songs on October 13 via Universal.

The first release from the new edition is an unheard song from the era called ‘Manhattan’, which you can listen to below.

“It feels quite strange that Bones is almost a decade old,” vocalist Lauren Mayberry said in a statement. “In some ways, it’s like it just happened, but also like that era was a lifetime ago. We are very grateful to all the fans who gave that album a special place in their heart, and still show us so much kindness today.” 

Bandmate Iain Cook added: “In late Summer 2011, Martin and I got together after having talked about doing so for a few years and started throwing down some synth-based ideas in my studio on the south side of Glasgow.

“‘Manhattan’ was the fourth idea we worked on together. It was the first time we messed around with sampling and chopping up our vocals which would go on to become one of the hallmarks of the band’s sound. Lyrically, we were playing around with pretty abstract apocalyptic imagery – in this case the Manhattan Project. This was right around the time we asked Lauren to come into the studio to try out some additional vocals.”

Mayberry said: “Manhattan was one of the first songs Iain and Martin played me and it immediately felt like an exciting thing to be involved in.

“It really showcased a lot of the traits that would eventually become synonymous with Chvrches and what our first album would end up sounding like. It’s fun to listen to it now, knowing everything that came along after it.”

See the tracklist for the new anniversary edition below.

1. ‘The Mother We Share’
2. ‘We Sink’
3. ‘Gun’
4. ‘Tether’
5. ‘Lies’
6. ‘Under The Tide’
7. ‘Recover’
8. ‘Night Sky’
9. ‘Science/Visions’
10. ‘Lungs’
11. ‘By The Throat’
12. ‘You Caught The Light’
13. ‘Manhattan’
14. ‘White Summer’
15. ‘Talking In My Sleep’
16. ‘City On Fire’
17. ‘We Sink’ (Live)
18. ‘Now Is Not The Time’ (Live)
19. ‘Lies’ (Live)
20. ‘Strong Hand’ (Live)
21. ‘By The Throat’ (Live)

Elsewhere, this week Mayberry shared a snippet of her debut solo single ‘Are You Awake?’. In a video posted to Instagram Mayberry said she was “flip-flopping between excitement and abject terror” about releasing the single, which followed a teaser video of the singer shooting the cover art depicting her curled up in a huge white bed sheet.

Mayberry first announced her solo music venture and Chvrches’ hiatus last month, though assured fans that Chvrches is not over.

“I met Iain [Cook] and Martin [Doherty] when I was 23 — a little baby of a person, in hindsight. Looking back on what we’ve achieved together, so much of it doesn’t feel real or even possible,” she wrote on Instagram. “I am so proud of all the chapters our band has been able to have and I am so grateful to my bandmates for taking me on that journey with them.”

“We are all confident that the Chvrches story has many more pages yet to be written,” she continued.