Lauren Mayberry Unveils New Song “Shame”: Stream

CHVRCHES singer Lauren Mayberry has shared her second solo single, “Shame.” Listen to the track below.

You never know what you’re going to get when the frontperson of a band branches out into a solo career, but “Shame” immediately feels like a Mayberry song, beginning with disjointed, industrial-sounding synths and the vocalist’s iconic chirp. Those electronic verses slow down in the lullaby chorus, however, as Mayberry sings, “I feel schizophrenic/ How poetic/ Romanticize all the pain/ How pathetic, drinking gasoline and calling me the flame.”

The singer-songwriter explained the meaning of the single in a statement. “I had the idea for a while of a song that had the tagline of ‘what a shame,’ but in a sarcastic way,” Mayberry said. “And the word ‘shame’ having a double meaning — the shame you feel and internalize, but what a shame you feel like that and can’t change it.”

The artist continued, “Looking back on a lot of my life in terms of relationships, sexuality and my sense of self in the world, there is a lot of shame associated with that. I came into my teens in the early-mid 2000s, a time period we now regard as a bit of a shithole in terms of gender and media messages (post Woodstock 99, the dawn of sex tape leaks, Girls Gone Wild, etc etc). What was deemed ‘attractive’ for women and girls was quite disturbing in hindsight, and that’s what went into my brain at a formative time, romanticizing bargain basement, local band boy versions of Reality Bites Ethan Hawke. But now I know better, my wiring is still to find those things attractive on a cellular level. I know not to want those things academically, but emotionally, romantically, sexually, I have been trained to find those things valuable and attractive.”

Mayberry is in the midst of her first-ever solo tour, where she debuted tracks like “Are You Awake?” and covered Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” Tickets to her remaining European shows are on sale now through Viagogo.

“Shame” Single Artwork: