Chvrches Return After Six Years With 'All The King's Men'

Chvrches will release their first album in six years, All The King's Men, on January 22 via Futures Music Group. The Scottish trio — Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty — will follow it with a 24-date tour of North America, Ireland and Britain running from February 13 to May 6.

The album's lead single, "Roses," arrived last month. The record spans 11 indie rock tracks, and the band names an unexpected set of reference points: Massive Attack, PJ Harvey, Nick Drake, Bert Jansch and the Incredible String Band.

Why the six-year gap?

The group paused after touring behind their previous album, 2021's Screen Violence. According to the announcement, they used the break to regroup and to find a way to challenge themselves in writing the follow-up. All The King's Men is the product of those songwriting sessions.

What that means in practice remains to be heard. The cited influences — folk figures like Drake and Jansch alongside trip-hop and art-rock — sit some distance from the synth-pop of the band's earlier catalog, including 2013's The Bones of What You Believe, which earned a place in rankings of the 2010s' best albums. Whether the new material marks a genuine stylistic shift or a set of studio touchstones will only become clear on release.

The tracklist

1. Roses
2. Evil
3. Adore You
4. Overthinker
5. Royal Blue
6. Comedown Tomorrow
7. Friend of a Friend
8. Three Out of Five
9. Conman
10. Jamie's Prayer
11. Faith in Flying

What does the tour cover?

The run opens in the United States and Canada on February 13 at Franklin Music Hall in Philadelphia and closes on May 6 at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. The itinerary splits into two legs: 18 North American dates through mid-March, then 10 UK and Ireland dates from late April.

The North American leg includes:

• 02-13 Philadelphia, PA — Franklin Music Hall
• 02-17 Brooklyn, NY — Brooklyn Steel
• 02-19 Washington, DC — Anthem
• 02-20 Pittsburgh, PA — Roxian Theatre
• 02-22 Buffalo, NY — Asbury Hall
• 02-23 Toronto, Ontario — History
• 02-25 Chicago, IL — Salt Shed (Indoor)
• 02-26 Milwaukee, WI — Riverside Theater
• 02-27 Madison, WI — The Sylvee
• 03-02 Boise, ID — Knitting Factory
• 03-03 Spokane, WA — Knitting Factory
• 03-05 Vancouver, British Columbia — Vogue Theatre
• 03-06 Seattle, WA — Paramount Theater
• 03-08 Portland, OR — Revolution Hall
• 03-10 Oakland, CA — Fox Theater
• 03-12 San Diego, CA — The Observatory North Park
• 03-13 Phoenix, AZ — The Van Buren
• 03-14 Los Angeles, CA — Hollywood Palladium

The UK and Ireland leg:

• 04-23 Glasgow — o2 Academy
• 04-26 Aberdeen — Music Hall
• 04-27 Dundee — LiveHouse
• 04-29 Dublin — 3Olympia
• 05-01 Manchester — Victoria Warehouse
• 05-02 Birmingham — o2 Academy 1
• 05-04 Bristol — o2 Academy 1
• 05-05 Norwich — The LCR UEA
• 05-06 London — O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire

Notably, the schedule lists no dates between March 14 and April 23, and no festival appearances have been announced. The announcement also gives no producer credits or pre-order details for the album.

For a band whose last record arrived during pandemic-era restrictions, the January 22 release and a full-scale return to the road amount to a deliberate restart — one whose commercial and artistic payoff will be measured from February 13 in Philadelphia.