CHVRCHES – All The King’s Men
CHVRCHES announce their eagerly anticipated new album All The King’s Men alongside an extensive run of shows across North America, the UK and Ireland starting in February.
All The King’s Men, their first album in almost six years, is due for release on January 22, 2027 in LP, CD, cassette and digital formats via Futures Music Group.
The band – Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty – took their pause in 2023 after touring their fourth album Screen Violence, with all agreed that when they returned, their next chapter had to challenge and excite them. The result is All The King’s Men, a self-consciously British freewheeling collection of 11 tracks of vividly emotional indie rock that fans won’t expect, and neither did they.
In the intervening years all three members were consciously and unconsciously absorbing material for their return. On his frequent trips back to Scotland to spend time with his mother, Doherty had reconnected with gritty British cinema by auteurs like Shane Meadows and Ken Loach – not incidentally the ones who stare down the barrel of the UK’s worst social issues – and UK artists like Massive Attack, Souxsie & The Banshees, and PJ Harvey. Meanwhile, Mayberry had done her 10,000 hours of sessions and leveled up as a lyricist, and came looking to make music that showcases a fresh storytelling quality and vocal range, and Cook – still living in the band’s Scotland home base – had started to reject electronics in favor of writing with acoustic instruments, and was listening to Nick Drake, Bert Jansch and Incredible String Band.
With none of them approaching creation in the same way, they eschewed the remote working of Screen Violence to meet for multiple, intense three-week stints in Glasgow. They knew recording in-person and in Scotland was exactly the environment necessary for experimentation on this record.
A first taste came last month in the form of “Roses” – a scathing piece of contemporary social commentary, a confrontation with the darker undercurrents of Britain, with Mayberry snarling, “raise a glass to delusions of the good days of blood and wine; of pearls for swine.” The song’s Orwellian closing announcement, “If I may command your undivided attention, now we can start,” set the stage for what is to come with All The King’s Men.
Through one lens All The King’s Men is a compulsive exploration of British and Scottish culture through the unique viewpoint of this specific band. After years now spent in America, with all its large newness as a country, Doherty and Mayberry connected with a sense of the UK’s history as “old and real” even when it’s ugly. Whether it’s smashing through expectations with playful 90s pop-rock (“Adore You”) or injecting bleak, expansive loneliness into indie ballads (“Comedown Tomorrow”), there’s an unapologetic dynamism and risk-taking to its state-of-the-nation songs that demands total attention.
For Mayberry, Doherty and Cook, this was about discovering their own strength between them, saying that it’s forever changed how they’ll work as individuals and together. In finding the album, CHVRCHES seem to have found something else too, for a second time in their career: a poignant creative language that belongs entirely to the three of them.
Next week, CHVRCHES play two very special intimate shows, in their hometown of Glasgow on October 26th and in London on October 29th, with proceeds going to charity. The shows sold out immediately and were oversubscribed many times over, but today the band announce a full tour of the UK and Ireland preceded by an extensive run of shows in North America, starting on February 13, 2027. Tickets for the shows go on sale to fans via presale at 10:00am local time on October 27th (N.America) and 10:00am local on October 28th (UK / Ireland), with general sale following 10:00am local on October 30th.
CHVRCHES – North America, UK & Ireland shows
February 13 – Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall
February 17 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
February 19 – Washington, DC – Anthem
February 20 – Pittsburgh, PA – Roxian Theatre
February 22 – Buffalo, NY – Asbury Hall
February 23 – Toronto, ON – History
February 25 – Chicago, IL – Salt Shed (Indoor)
February 26 – Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theater
February 27 – Madison, WI – The Sylvee
March 2 – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
March 3 – Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
March 5 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
March 6 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theater
March 8 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
March 10 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
March 12 – San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park
March 13 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
March 14 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
April 23 – Glasgow, UK – o2 Academy
April 26 – Aberdeen, UK – Music Hall
April 27 – Dundee, UK – LiveHouse
April 29 – Dublin, IE – 3Olympia
May 1 – Manchester, UK – Victoria Warehouse
May 2 – Birmingham, UK – o2 Academy 1
May 4 – Bristol, UK – o2 Academy 1
May 5 – Norwich, UK – The LCR UEA
May 6 – London, UK – o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
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