It’s been three long years since 2018’s Love is Dead, but CHVRCHES have kept us hooked in the interim with their addition to the soundtrack of Death Stranding, a video game released in 2019 (you should play it if you’re into that type of thing. Hideo Kojima is a master of game design). But now, the Scottish synth-pop band is finally back in full force with the release of their latest single, “He Said She Said.”
Having been recorded almost entirely remotely via Zoom and audio sharing equipment, the evocative, resonant new single is an ode to the journey of self-reflection that frontwoman, Lauren Mayberry, underwent during her time in quarantine. It’s an indignant, justifiably righteous, pissed-off opinion piece, and one that most, if not all, women can relate to. Mayberry elucidates in a press statement:
“I feel like I have spent a lot of my life (personally and professionally) performing the uncomfortable balancing act that is expected of women and it gets more confusing and exhausting the older I get. Be successful but only in the way we want you to be. Speak up for yourself but not so loudly that you steal men’s thunder. Be attractive but only for the benefit of men, and certainly don’t be vain. Strive to be the Hot Sad Girl but don’t actually be sad in a way that’s inconvenient for anyone. Be smart but not smart enough to ask for more than what you’re being given. 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 f*cking 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.”
Preach, woman. We’re totally with you on this.
A strong message combined with an absolute banger of a track; what’s not to love?
SIMILAR SONGS
