Almost 10 years after they’d formed out of the fragments from various alt-rock projects in and around Glasgow, the pandemic provided a bit of reflection and adaptation for Chvrches.

The period following the release of 2018’s Love Is Dead was particularly intense for Lauren Mayberry – sadly as a women fronting a band in the modern age she takes the brunt of an an unfair amount of abuse from (mostly) men on the Internet. Hard, then, to have a healthy relationship to social media when it’s often poisoness and the pandemic temporarily shifted the world entirely online.

That’s just one of a number of reasons why Screen Violence felt like an appropriate title for Chvrches’ new album – out 27 August – it’s a nod to the band’s collective love of horror movies, but also a series of direct reflections on just how challenging navigating life through that lens can be.

The group’s hero, Robert Smith from The Cure, makes an extremely rare guest appearance on the album – and from what Lauren says here, it sounds like he’s got his attitude to smartphones and video calling completely sussed out. What a legend.