Grim Town

The upcoming effort follows up 2015's Before We Forgot How To Dream, which earned the Northern Irish artist a prestigious Mercury Music Prize nomination (one of the youngest acts to receive such a nod). It also comes after her 2014 Blud EP, the first project to be put out by CHVRCHES' own Goodbye Records label, as well as acclaimed festival sets at Primavera Sound and Glastonbury.

Grim Town is comprised of 14 tracks that touch on the topics of "long-distance love, depression, divorce, and social anxiety to the changing modern landscape (sexually, politically, emotionally)," according to a press statement. Binding all the songs together is a central premise of "a dystopia that I've created in my brain: me on the inside, processed into a pretend location," explains SOAK, born Bridie Monds-Watson. The 22-year-old elaborated further:

"The way I could wrap my head around a lot of what I was going through was to make it feel like something quite physical and real. Once I had the idea of the album being an actual location, exploring the dynamics of this town and what it would look or sound like felt like the right way to give my mental state a personality."

Our first visit to Grim Town comes in the form of "Knock Me Off My Feet". The snappy lead single is said to be a "love letter" to small-town culture and the idea that we ourselves can be our best allies and our worst enemies.