When Chvrches stepped off the road in 2023, Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, and Martin Doherty made a deliberate decision to step back and rethink how they functioned as a unit. The outcome of that pause, a fifth studio album titled All The King's Men, will arrive on January 22, 2027. Coming nearly six years after 2021's Screen Violence, the release ends the longest gap between records in the Scottish trio's career. To support the release, the band has mapped out a lengthy headline tour across North America, the UK, and Ireland for the opening stretch of 2027.
The overhaul began with their physical working environment. During the making of Screen Violence, the three musicians worked in isolation, swapping audio files back and forth across digital channels. For All The King's Men, they scrapped that remote habit entirely. Setting up base in Glasgow, the trio worked through demanding stretches of three weeks together in the studio, purposefully pushing their writing beyond their familiar electronic boundaries.
Returning to Scotland after living for considerable periods in the United States prompted a deeper look at Scottish and British culture. For Doherty, regular trips home to see his mother prompted reflections on how domestic art grapples with difficult truths. Those thoughts led him back to the films of Ken Loach and the direct social realism found in music by Massive Attack and Siouxsie & The Banshees.
Cook underwent a parallel creative shift while working in Scotland. He chose to set aside pure synthesizer arrangements in favor of acoustic instruments, finding inspiration in traditional British folk. His contributions draw heavily on the fingerpicked acoustic styles of Bert Jansch and Nick Drake, alongside the unorthodox arrangements of The Incredible String Band. It is a striking stylistic turn, placing the new material in sharp contrast with the glossy electronic sound that introduced the group more than a decade ago.
Listeners have already heard an initial preview in the form of opening track Roses, which served as the first advance single. Earlier this year, the trio also road-tested another selection, Conman, during Robert Smith's Teenage Cancer Trust concert series at London's Royal Albert Hall. Anchored by a heavy, industrial bassline, the song finds Mayberry singing of a man made for the microphone who weighs her pockets down with stones while his nine lives balance on the edge of a knife. The rest of the eleven-song tracklist brings together Evil, Adore You, Overthinker, Royal Blue, Comedown Tomorrow, Friend Of A Friend, Three Out Of Five, Jamie's Prayer, and Faith In Flying.
Before the full record campaign takes hold, the band will play two small charity shows next week in Glasgow and London. Doherty has referred to the collection as the most fearless music the trio has ever put together, pointing to raw energy and unexpected directions that could surprise longtime listeners.
The headline tour gets underway in North America on February 13, 2027, at Franklin Music Hall in Philadelphia. The run continues through mid-March, stopping at The Anthem in Washington, Brooklyn's Steel, the Salt Shed in Chicago, and the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. The trio then heads back across the Atlantic in late spring, launching their UK and Irish dates at Glasgow's O2 Academy on April 23 and wrapping up at London's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on May 6.
