Retvrn.
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[6.62]
Iain Mew: Is that a bit of “Sogyeokdong” I hear in the synth pattern? It’s a good one, but it’s a less critical part of “Leave a Trace” compared to previous Chvrches songs. This one’s more about where it falls apart, “there are tiny cracks of light underneath me” dropping clues before the thrilling chorus where Lauren Mayberry decides to just punch through to the light in advance, whatever the consequences. The floor sliding immediately back in for the second verse like nothing happened is a neat trick, too.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: The coffeeshop I work out of plays, in a hilarious confirmation of stereotype, Lisa Loeb’s “Stay” at least twice a day; it’s a little disappointing how something that’s, in my experience, a remarkably veritas monologue’s been relegated to ’90s bland and karaoke kitsch. So while I still prefer Chvrches of “Science/Visions” to each successive sugary incarnation, the keen to Mayberry’s vocal and lines like “I’m as sane as I ever was” and “anything you ever did was strictly by design, but you got it wrong” suggests I might want to hear Chvrches more like that.
[6]
Thomas Inskeep: Pretty sure this should’ve soundtracked a cutting-room-floor scene in Just One of the Guys in which Terry dances around her room to this song on the radio, happy/sad, as she comes to fully understand the depth of her feelings for Rick.
[6]
Alfred Soto: After a charming and surprising Pitchfork Festival performance two weeks ago, I waited for more goodies. It’s closer to pop than a phantom indie underground: Lauren Mayberry, singing at the top of her range, almost sells that chorus like Taylor Swift almost sold hers last year. The production glistens; the drum program and synths hit as hard as Mayberry’s lyrics. No reason why this couldn’t take up residence in the American top ten.
[6]
Micha Cavaseno: It’s cool to be reminded that you can give nervous hysteria a danceable beat.
[7]
Patrick St. Michel: It’s a slow-burner that’s less concerned with reaching any sort of resolution, because that line has already been crossed, the whole song one big declaration of freedom from a doomed relationship. “Leave a Trace” isn’t a particularly dazzling song, but it does show how Chvrches can turn a straightforward idea into something far more vivid.
[6]
Sonia Yang: CHVRCHES have always been achingly beautiful but in a cold way, with Mayberry’s voice a small beam of light barely shining through the precise clockwork. “Leave a Trace” feels warmer as a whole. Despite, or perhaps because of the accusing and sometimes distraught nature of the lyrics, Mayberry comes across as more of a flesh and blood being before us than the wistful voice in the back of our heads. The vocal variety on this is fantastic: from the contemplative verses to the pleading “I know I need to feel relief” to the decisive, cutting “take care…”. The arrangement is less remarkable than a lot of their other songs but it serves its purpose well here; it’s the unrelenting heartbeat pulling everything together. “Leave a Trace” also doesn’t resolve neatly, its echoes tapering and lingering.
[8]
Brad Shoup: There’s a little country in the way Mayberry handles the meter; she’s called this the meanest song on the record, and for Nashville this is pretty harsh. The harshness extends to the trebly rendering: there’s no triumph here, just a bunch of mincing.
[6]