As with the rest of the album, these songs were mixed by famed studio guru Spike Stentwhose résumé features the likes of U2, Beyoncé, and Björkand they all sound massive. Never-Ending Circles is hooked around a bright, repeatedly stumbling synth part and features a middle-eight that evokes the more sparkling moments from Taylor Swifts 1989. Mayberry describes the R&B-inflected Leave a Trace as the nastiest, snidest tune on the record: Her voice sounds deeper and more soulful than ever as she sings of a lover who took far too much for someone so unkind. Make Them Gold, meanwhile, might be the most anthemic Chvrches song yet, somewhere between Starship and Erasure with its racing drums, gaudy synth dazzle, and message of anxious empowerment: We are made of our mistakes/ We are falling but not alone.
