Vicious Creature’s biggest bites come when Lauren Mayberry’s production pals take a smoke break.
Stream: ‘Vicious Creature’ – Lauren Mayberry
The shortcomings of Vicious Creature are not Lauren Mayberry’s fault.
The frontwoman for the Glasgow-based electro-pop trio CHVRCHES, formed in 2011, has seen much success with her band since then, so her curiosity about what a solo effort could be was sure to develop. Mayberry’s Vicious Creature is out now via Island Records.
She affirms, “There’s things I’ve never been comfortable performing or sharing with a band of men. As much as my time with the band has always had this feminist narrative underpinning it, a lot of my role felt like it was more about me trying to fit in than leading the conversation.”
It wasn’t until the final track on Vicious Creature, “Are You Awake?” that I got chills. Much of the rest of the album left me cold.
So, why don’t I think this is Mayberry’s fault?
I mean, it’s her name on the album cover, right? Even though Mayberry steps into independence from her band, her new production and songwriting partners step on that newfound independence.
The best cuts on Vicious Creature, “Anywhere But Dancing,” “Oh, Mother,” and the aforementioned “Are You Awake?” all feature Mayberry in stark settings, her clear and inviting voice forgoing the overblown production techniques on the rest of the record that feel a little too much like producers procuring paychecks.
Vicious Creature would be a more successful work of art if it utilized this semi-acoustic approach to a greater degree. This would also draw a more pronounced contrast with what Mayberry does as part of CHVRCHES.
On this record, Mayberry calls out men for various behaviors that men should be called out for. I am also calling out men for failing to encourage and hampering this album’s potential.
Mayberry explains that the album opener “Something In The Air” is a song “that really came out of nowhere” after she bumped into a “pretty iconic British musician” in the “shared kitchen in the studio complex.” I will not quibble over the clinical nature of this description and how it omits details that would make the story, and thus the song, more intriguing.
The unnamed musician in the kitchen that Mayberry says she “won’t throw under the bus” started a conversation with Mayberry about “electricity, 5G, and how it’s making us all sick.” Mayberry then “went for a walk around the block” with her producer before concluding that “the chorus lyric just appeared.”
Now, look. I don’t mind the lo-fi crunch that opens this tune. It has a nice build into a catchy enough melody. I thought of Alanis Morrissette, except not as sneakily poignant, not as gloriously spastic, and not as likely to be discussed thirty years after its release. There is nothing wrong with that, but nothing wrong is not enough!
In a year that had us spinning Cowboy Carter, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, and Brat non-stop, I expect choruses that try harder to be indelible.
Again, I don’t blame Mayberry.
She seems like a lovely person, and I completely believe her on this record when I hear her through the production. I looked at Mayberry’s TikTok, and she even did the current “I love my sootcase!” meme that everyone is enjoying so much right now (I did it, too!), so I know we’re bros, in some sense.
Maybe I should blame her because that’s what real bros do, but I feel Vicious Creature suffers under the influence of forces outside of Mayberrry’s artistic circle from the start. It is notable that CHVRCHES albums are, for the most part, produced by the band themselves.
I wish Mayberry hadn’t taken that walk with her producer. I wish she had taken it alone. Perhaps she would have named names, at least in her own mind, and that self-reflection without the input of another would have allowed “Something In The Air” to come out of somewhere instead of “nowhere.”
Mayberry elaborates further on this inspirational mystery musician’s rhetoric and about “unpacking those theories, and why people want to believe them,” except the song itself doesn’t actually address why people believe these theories. “Something” is certainly not the reason.
The album’s current single, “Crocodile Tears,” comes in with a propulsive beat that reminds of Stevie’s “Edge of Seventeen” mixed with the insistence of Elton’s “I’m Still Standing.” Very 80s. Very producer-y. Vicious Creature sounds like the kind of record that in-demand record producers make in between the records that really pay the bills.
Like, “Look, I turned the knobs, I contributed some ideas. It sounds big! Listen to those toms panning from the left to right! I did the work! Play it in the big conference room at the record label!”
The track plays as ordinary and pedestrian for me, a lowly listener with earbuds in the corner coffee shop.
“Maybe I’m a villain, but I find it kind of thrilling when you cry. Crocodile tears running down your face… Oh, what a man will say just to get his way.”
And yet, Mayberry’s feminist message shines through, and I am here for it.
Yes, men are manipulative, which is ironic (don’t you think?) because when they behave this way, it is a show of weakness. It is an attempt to control a woman since that man isn’t confident that he can hold her attention otherwise.
Unfortunately, that is what I am getting from this man-produced and co-written cut! I want to hear Mayberrry’s voice and Mayberry’s thoughts, but they are obscured by production.
Mayberry explains that she wants to “let go of the idea that I need to be ‘nice,’ because I think that holds so many women back…. If I didn’t have to be seen as ‘nice,’ I would feel comfortable telling certain people to fuck off… On this record… I get to do that.”
I wholeheartedly agree with Mayberry’s inspiration. However, she is still being too nice. She absolutely should have told someone to “fuck off.”
Counter to my theories about the undue influence of men on the making of Vicious Creature, the music video for “Crocodile Tears” was directed by a woman, the photographer Charlotte Patmore, who also directed the “Something In The Air” video for Mayberry.
While a woman behind the camera makes more ideological sense considering the theme of the album, I do not understand why one clip would feature Mayberry in a bathtub with the other showcasing her rolling around in bed.
What am I supposed to take from this?
Mayberry makes it clear that Vicious Creature is about empowerment, so the last place we should see her is lounging around in bed and bath. I want to see her beyond. Even though the song “Crocodile Tears” feels hampered by production whims, a video offers an opportunity to command attention.
By the way, can we end the trend of calling a music video a “visualizer?” Can we get away from marketing-speak dictating how we are supposed to perceive art? Only Andy Warhol is allowed to do that, and he already did it.
I was listening to a story the other day about Brian Jones, the troubled founder of the Rolling Stones, and his one true love, the actress Anita Pallenberg. Their incredibly dysfunctional relationship managed to maintain itself because, sadly, Pallenburg was as abusive to Jones as he was to her, and Jones had never experienced being with a woman like this before.
Does toxicity meeting toxicity cancel toxicity out? No. Absolutely not. But the reality and history of this situation show that, for a time, it worked in a way that it didn’t work before.
“So much of this process has been an exercise in empowering myself to listen to my own intuition – something I really trained myself out of,” Mayberry says. “I think it was important for me to relearn that kind of independence.”
Mayberry’s power is peeking through on some of Vicious Creature. I want her to show that power more aggressively! I long for Mayberry to make an artistic statement about her creativity being suppressed, but also demand that we listen to that statement.
I want her to be the Pallenberg to the record industry’s Jones and surprise it by punching back hard instead of simply “listening to intuition.”
Despite the analogy, I am not talking about physical aggression or aggressive music. It is about fighting fire with fire. Even Carole King’s Tapestry, a soft-rock masterpiece (emphasis on soft), is never mushy in its messaging.
King feels the earth move under her feet, she feels the sky tumbling down. The moving earth doesn’t knock King from her posture, the sky doesn’t knock her to the ground. She IS woman, and she IS one with the earth and sky.
I want this for Mayberry.
By the way, Pallenburg lived until 2017. Maybe she was a CHVRCHES fan.
As “Crocodile Tears” continues, I continue to root for Mayberry, and I continue to get more and more frustrated with her co-conspirators. Thoughts of Mayberry’s mantra (one song is, in fact, titled “Mantra”) about the album being an expression of her feminism, and an opportunity to express her individuality after more than a decade fronting a band of men, informs my listening.
I get it. I applaud it. Unfortunately, those valid and vital messages are not enough to make me love this pop record because what I mostly get from this pop record is not these messages. I am getting the message, “Please love this pop record!”
It is not Lauren Mayberry’s fault.
The next song, “Shame,” can explain. Here we have even more production ideas! It feels like there is a sonic world here, but it also feels like there was a meeting about creating a “sonic world,” and then on the day Mayberry came into the studio, the “Lauren Mayberry’s Sonic World” session files were opened up.
Mayberry deserves better than this!
The intimate relationship between producers and artists is more intertwined than ever today. Of the many “fifth Beatles” discussed, George Martin gets that title most frequently because he IS the fifth Beatle.
Practically zero songs that we consider part of the Beatles’ classic canon would have been anything approximating what we know them to be without Martin’s skill for collaboration.
Speaking of Morrissette, her magic pairing with Glen Ballard set the stage for the cultural takeover of “You Oughta Know.” We see similar creative alliances today, such as Taylor Swift with Jack Antonoff and Billie Eilish with her brother, Finneas. Daniel Nigro is rightly aspiring to have his name on the tip of your tongue, without it having to be looked up, as Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan’s fifth Beatle.
I feel schizophrenic
How poetic
Romanticize all the pain
How pathetic
Drinking gasoline
And calling me the flame
I like the maturity of this imagery as compared to other lyrics in “Shame.”
I don’t really wanna hear it from you, babe
I’m tired of talking about it
You’ll learn to live without it
So, hush your mouth until you do
This disparity of the mindset in these two lyrical passages remind me of Mayberry’s age and exactly how long she has been waiting to make this record. It took Mick Jagger two decades to release She’s The Boss (this review is Stones-heavy!), unlike Mayberry’s one, but Mick will live forever, so he could wait that extra ten years.
When Mayberry speaks about finally expressing herself outside of CHVRCHES, I am reminded that some of the ideas on Vicious Creature are coming from the reserves of a younger Mayberry who is just now able to unburden herself of them.
I would love to hear more cuts like “Anywhere But Dancing,” which is giving me Kurt Cobain recording “Something In The Way” while laying on the floor of Butch Vig’s control room vibes or, even more notably, of cradling his acoustic guitar on that same tune for MTV Unplugged.
It is one of Cobain’s most emotionally raw and well-known performances, and if Mayberry is evoking that here, it again speaks to how her ideas on Vicious Creature could have been better conveyed.
Sweating through a t-shirt on a Tuesday night
A pirouette to reel you in
Heart-to-heart and skin-on-skin
Hands beneath a T-shirt on a Tuesday night
I stare into the mirror to find the face you used to wear
But it isn’t there
I want to hear more of this kind of vulnerability, resolve, and self-awareness unhindered and unhidden by “professionals.”
Considering that the majority of CHVRCHES material is produced by the band, would it have been impossible for the three to collaborate on a Mayberry solo record?
I understand the impulse to want to go to Los Angeles and try something different with someone different, and maybe Mayberry’s bandmates didn’t want to mint a permanent departure, but the work is the enduring legacy. The album is what lasts or doesn’t. Glen and Alanis, you (oughta) know?
By the way, can we use less cloying language in press releases?
“Mayberry… has enjoyed monumental success with CHVRCHES, which has accrued more than 1.7 billion global streams to date and a string of awards and nominations.”
“I have been enjoying my monumental success” is not something a person says.
This is meant to make us believe that “streams” are what is important when evaluating the validity of the art the “streams” represent.
While “streams” are important to an artist’s (and moreover everyone who takes money from the artist’s) bank account and a “string of awards” is an important rung on the ladder towards the industry not needing to ask “who is that?” there is nothing about this that is related to artists turning themselves inside-out in service of those who can not do that for themselves, i.e., the fans.
It is not Lauren Mayberry’s fault.
“That’s ultimately why you start making things – because you felt a feeling, and you wanted to articulate that somehow,” she says.
Correct. As Vicious Creature continues, my issues with it continue to make me wade through a swamp of production to find that feeling Mayberry is talking about.
Through inexplicable “outer space” sound effects, Mayberry sings “I crack your head to see your thoughts” on “Punch Drunk,” and while I take this as a metaphor and not some kind of actual Pallenberg-type confession of assault, I am reminded again of the idea of a more aggressive Mayberry.
One of the album’s highlights, “Oh, Mother,” starts out with recollections of childhood that are visually moving, if not particularly unique. Swimming pools, temper tantrums, tripping and falling.
Then we are dealt a nice twist that elevates the song to the boundary setting and ownership that I want to hear, and that Mayberry aspires to, on Vicious Creature.
From childhood needs (“Oh, Mother. I couldn’t do without you”) to childhood angst (“Oh, Mother. I could do without you”) and then adult loss and grief (“Oh, Mother. What will I do without you?”)
Structurally, I long for a bridge to rock my world, but the tasteful cinematic orchestral swell that closes the song makes “Oh, Mother” the best cut on the album.
Mayberry loudly lets us know that Kathleen Hanna is an influence via the punk-inflected “Sorry, Etc.” This is a decent headbanger, although the song’s best lyrics are buried in… well, you know what I will say at this point.
“I bit my tongue to be one of the boys,” Mayberry sings. I, on the other hand, did not.
It is not Lauren Mayberry’s fault.
“Change Shapes” was released as a single nearly nine months ago and is the album’s best effort at mixing Mayberry’s electro-pop pedigree with what she can do with the softer side of her sound. It also contains the best cross-section of the themes of Vicious Creature, backed up by an earworm-worthy chorus.
I bend over backwards, tiptoe along every wire
I guess I’m quite the actress, no one knows I’m a liar
I change shapes until I get what I need from you
We’re all snakes, but what else is a girl supposed to do?
Similarly, the video for the song is more visually arresting than the others mentioned above. It’s too bad that this song received its push so long ago. Maybe it will receive new life when Mayberry heads out on what looks to be an extensive tour to promote the album,
“A Work of Fiction” is a breezy little number late in the record featuring cute snare drum and piano figures dancing with one another against Mayberry’s syncopated vocal. The tune is a throwaway, but it’s sweet.
Hey, I know that I am just gilding the lily now (as I demure from saying “sounding like a broken record”), but the electronic touches (or, more abrasively, “glitches”) added to this track are totally unnecessary and detract from the more pleasant qualities of the song.
“Sunday Best” has that “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim sampled piano sound that I might pay to never hear again, and just before I remark that maybe Vicious Creature is ten minutes too long, it ends strong with “Are You Awake?,” the cut that gave me chills.
The minor piano chords lend a seriousness that feels earned.
Are you awake?
I don’t remember when we last spoke
I probably overshared
or made some tasteless joke
Hey, we’ve all been there, girl. I only wanted you to take me there more on this record. You talked about your creativity being hidden and showed us some, but I am still left with the impression of a Mayberry obscured.
The quieter numbers on Vicious Creature are too few, and this is disappointing because they are the most moving parts of the record and best accomplish what Mayberry says she set out to do.
I am looking forward to a second Mayberry solo record that highlights the more raw, bare-bones aspects of her songwriting and performance capabilities. If it is not as epic as I imagine it can be, that will be Lauren Mayberry’s fault.
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© Charlotte Patmore
© Charlotte PatmoreVicious Creature
an album by Lauren Mayberry
