3. Chvrches- The Bones of What You Believe
Chvrches are the best thing to come out of Scotland this year and armed with a debut that's dressed in an '80s fetish electro outfit and a lead voice so sweetly addictive along with choruses that are far too catchy to be ignored. The Glaswegian trio consist of Laura Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty whose musical influences include Depeche Mode, Prince and Cocteau Twins which you can hear inflected in their synth-pop chooooons! The thing with this album is that every song could be released as a respective single, but opening track Mother We Share presents the voice of the album that's echoed throughout. Recover and We Sink infuse a winning formula of effortless hooks you can imagine singing along to in the tiny hours of a festival morning while Gun is one of Scottish-synths great lost singles that's gained comparisons to Madonna and Human League with Laura's pounding voice relentlessly purring "there is no other way, never run far, take a good swing at me...". Chvrches, named so they could be easily googled and not be confused with religious buildings, avoid guitars completely which makes for a clean, sharp and immaculate sound. By The Throat is a song that quite literally grabs you by the throat and make no mistake this is a remarkably beautiful record. Those of us who've been aboard the train that set off north of the border back in 2011 are ready to accommodate the inevitable swelling of the Chvrches fanclub.