Lauren Mayberry - Vicious Creature

For someone who felt to spend years almost actively dodging the spotlight's singular glare, Lauren Mayberry has made one hell of an entrance into pop's solo sphere. After a decade of carefully deflecting the world's attempt to make CHVRCHES The Lauren Show™, she's finally decided to step forward on her own terms – and ber-limey, Dear Reader, what terms they are.

'Vicious Creature' is a masterclass in pop alchemy that transforms personal vindication into pure gold. Like stumbling into some alternate-universe cabaret where greats from Annie Lennox to Madonna are trading war stories over expensive whiskey, it drips with both venom and vulnerability – a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis with a switchblade between its teeth.

Opener 'Something In The Air' arrives with the kind of wide-horizon, high-definition pop that doesn't just give you goosebumps – it gives your goosebumps goosebumps. 'Crocodile Tears' follows with enough swing and swagger to make the 80s giants check their rearview mirrors, while 'Shame' sounds like St Vincent's most radio-ready moments got into a bar fight (and won).

The real magic, though, lies in the way Mayberry wields her newfound freedom. Released from the neon-cage and allowed to follow all her instinctive urges, her voice shows new depths, particularly on tracks like 'Change Shapes' – a shape-shifter of a song that knows exactly when to land its punches. 'Sunday Best' is the kind of euphoric bop that doesn't just reach for the spotlight but grabs it with both hands, proving that sometimes the best revenge is simply allowing yourself to soar.

By the time closer 'Are You Awake?' rolls around, taking every hook-laden moment that came before and distilling it into something devastatingly intimate, one thing becomes crystal clear: this isn't CHVRCHES 2.0, but it has every ounce of the inventive brilliance that first made us fall in love with Mayberry's voice. Only now, that voice has even more to say.

In taking command and choosing the right time to step forward, Mayberry has created a statement of intent carved in diamond-encrusted chrome. 'Vicious Creature' is what happens when you take all that carefully managed restraint, wrap it in razor wire, and let it loose on an unsuspecting world. Expectations were high, but the realisation is stratospheric.