If you had called the phone number that was featured in the music video for "Get Out" - the lead single from Scottish synth-pop trio Chvrches upcoming third album Love is Dead (May 25, 2018) - you would have heard lead singer Lauren Mayberry reciting rather accusatory poetry. It turns out that she was reading some of the verses from their second single "My Enemy". The twist is that these verses ('I got no more time to hear what you think about me/ Because all your words are so cold, so callous, so clean') are sung by The National's Matt Berninger. His foreboding baritone establishes a stark contrast with Mayberry's airy soprano.
Little context, plot, or backstory is provided to make sense of how the song's emotional status quo came to be. All we know is that love has taken a dark turn - and that Mayberry seems to want reparations for all the time she invested in the relationship: 'And you could be my enemy/ And you could be my judge/ If you could start remembering all the time that you used up.' The song's premise is reminiscent of The National's "This is the Last Time", a similarly pessimistic and lovelorn duet with St. Vincent's Annie Clark. With super-producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia, Tegan and Sara) at the helm, however, "My Enemy" easily gains admission into the radio-friendly category with its effervescent synths.
As a vocal feminist and founder of TYCI, a feminist collective in Glasgow, it is not surprising that Mayberry came to become better acquianted with Berninger after becoming involved in 7 Inches For Planned Parenthood (a curated series of records that he spearheaded to raise funds for the NGO). In a press statement, Mayberry stated that "It's really inspiring and reassuring to meet other artists you admire and realize that they are trying to do some good in the world." Their shared passion for activism probably helped to make the collaboration process that much smoother: "We never realistically thought he'd have time to do it but he replied [to our email] right away and recorded the track at his house the next day.”
