CHVRCHES Debuted Eight New Songs in a Glasgow Church

CHVRCHES. Their fifth album, All the King's Men, is due on 22 January.

The room was the production choice. CHVRCHES made their fifth album inside Assumption Studios, a converted church in Glasgow, and on Monday 26 October they played it back to 100 fans in the same space: an invite-only, phone-free charity show where, according to NME and Billboard, eight songs from the new album were played live for the first time. Within a day the Scottish trio released the second single, “Overthinker”, from All the King’s Men, the album due on 22 January.

It is the first CHVRCHES album in nearly six years, and the Glasgow set was the clearest preview yet of what Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty have been building since 2021’s Screen Violence.

What the Glasgow Setlist Gave Away

Phones were not allowed, but the setlist surfaced online afterwards. Songs given their live debut in the 14-song set included the two released singles, “Roses” and “Overthinker”, and the unreleased “Heaven/Hell”, “Three Out of Five”, “Friend of a Friend”, “Comedown Tomorrow” and “Evil”, according to NME.

The surprise came midway. Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil joined the band for three tracks: two more unreleased songs, “Jamie’s Prayer” and “Faith In Flying”, and a cover of Biffy’s 2007 single “Machines”. Scottish rock and Scottish synth-pop sharing one converted church is the kind of booking that only works in a 100-capacity room.

The older material was chosen with care. The set included “The Mother We Share”, the 2013 breakthrough, and “Clearest Blue” from 2015, which found a second life four years ago when it soundtracked a pivotal scene in Netflix’s Heartstopper, as Billboard noted.

How Overthinker Turns Away From Roses

The two singles point in opposite directions. “Roses”, released in September as the band’s first new music in three years, was described by NME as dark, industrial and politically charged. Its video put Mayberry in a new goth look among a crashed car and a suit of knight’s armour.

“Overthinker” is inward. Billboard describes it as driven by propulsive synths and built around complicated family relationships and depression. “Should I lie to you, keep my thoughts from you?” Mayberry asks, before the line that gives the song its title: “Not sure how you raised such a chronic overthinker.” NME’s reading is that the band have moved from societal pressure to family dynamics, with a relationship described as both shelter and storm.

Put side by side, the two tracks suggest an album that swings between the public and the private, with the synths doing different jobs in each: atmosphere behind live drums and guitars on “Roses”, the engine of the track on “Overthinker”.

How Roses Was Built

“Roses” is the more surprising production of the two. Consequence heard the trio reprising the darker, knottier approach of Screen Violence while leaning further into rock than ever before: acoustic drums crash, guitars whine, and the band’s synthesizers become more of an atmospheric layer than the lead voice. For a band known as a synth-pop trio, handing the foreground to a drum kit is the clearest signal that this era will not simply repeat the old formula.

The writing matches the arrangement. Mayberry interpolates the English nursery rhyme “Ring a Ring o’ Roses” in the chorus and aims the lyric at how ideas of old Britain, from feudalism and monarchy to colonial violence and plague, still shape contemporary life in the UK. She also raps in the bridge. In a statement, she said the band “wanted to really push ourselves and not be retreading ground we’d walked before”, adding: “It feels like the most coherent vision we’ve had as a band.”

The gap since Screen Violence was not silent for the band as a unit either. They released a one-off single, “Over”, in 2023, and a cover of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” for the Hulu series Tell Me Lies in January. Before the UK and US dates, they are also booked for Mexico City’s Corona Capital festival in November.

Inside All the King’s Men

The album was written over several intense three-week stints in Glasgow, where the band experimented and explored the culture and history of Britain and Scotland, according to NME. It will include “Conman”, which CHVRCHES first played during Robert Smith’s Teenage Cancer Trust series at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year. The same venue is set to host another synth-pop name with live players, as electropop.news reported when Shygirl announced she would bring a full band to the Royal Albert Hall.

When “Roses” arrived, Mayberry explained the reset. “This is the longest break we had ever taken between albums and when we got together to write new music, we wanted to really push,” she said, in comments reported by NME. Doherty said at the time that the record was 90% complete and described it as quite hard but still recognisable as the band. Doherty and drummer Jonny Scott later told NME fans could expect “the most fearless record” they had made.

The album is released through Futures, which Billboard describes as an independent label group. Screen Violence featured “How Not to Drown”, a collaboration with The Cure’s Robert Smith, so the Royal Albert Hall debut of “Conman” at his series continued a working relationship rather than starting one.

What the Trio Did in the Gap

The six-year wait was not idle. Mayberry released her debut solo album, Vicious Creature, in December 2024. Doherty and Scott launched a rave-leaning project, The Leaving, which released its debut album, Ultimate Buzz, earlier this year. Cook teamed up with Scott Paterson, formerly of Sons and Daughters, in 2022 for a project called Protection.

Those detours matter for the sound. Each member spent the break working in a different part of the electronic map, from Mayberry’s songwriting under her own name to Doherty’s club-facing material, and the new songs arrive after all three came back to the same room with that experience.

Where CHVRCHES Stand on the Charts

All four previous CHVRCHES albums reached the top 10 of the UK Official Albums Chart, with Screen Violence and 2015’s Every Open Eye both peaking at No. 4, Billboard reports. In the US, the band’s biggest chart success remains a feature: Marshmello’s 2019 track “Here With Me”, which reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The touring plan covers both markets. The band head to North America first, where their biggest hit to date came as a guest, and then return to the UK and Ireland, where every album so far has reached the top 10. All the King’s Men will be the first test of whether a six-year gap has cost them any of that standing.

The Tour Dates and the Last Secret Show

One more intimate show was scheduled for London’s St Matthias Church on Thursday 29 October, following the Glasgow date. All proceeds from the two secret shows were set to go to charity, with tickets allocated through a ballot.

The full tour follows the album. North American dates begin in Philadelphia in February, with stops including Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. The band then cross to the UK and Ireland in April and May, ending with a headline show at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 6 May. For a band that has spent nearly six years away from albums, two church shows and a pair of contrasting singles are a deliberate way back: small rooms first, then the full machine.