Music Reviews

Marshmello Enlists CHVRCHES For Underwhelming "Here With Me"

The electronic DJ largely wastes the Scottish trio on an unchallenging new single.

You wouldn't think an EDM song would lack excitement.

But "Here With Me," the newest single from electronic dance producer Marshmello, featuring collaboration and vocals from Scottish electropop trio CHVRCHES, is a strangely boring electronic dance track. Usually, a Marshmello song will at least raise your blood pressure the tiniest bit, or inspire a somewhat unwilling foot tap, but "Here With Me" is oddly tame, employing stock electronica sounds and faux-intimate verses for a remarkably routine two and a half minutes. CHVRCHES frontwoman, Lauren Mayberry, sounds wonderful, conveying both heartache and hope in her voice as well as she ever has with CHVRCHES, but the lyrics themselves are without substance.

While even bloodless songs can still make for pleasant listening, "Here With Me" lacks the content to make up for its formulaic structure. Slapping some lovelorn verses on a barebones electronic beat with all the nuance of a nail through a 2x4 doesn't guarantee you a song that feels genuine. A hollow ringing in your ear is the only thing remaining once the song ends. Wasting the considerable talents of CHVRCHES is one thing, but what's worse is that it's an underwhelming Marshmello offering. He, especially, can do better.


Matthew Apadula is a writer and music critic from New York. His work has previously appeared on GIGsoup Music and in Drunk in a Midnight Choir.


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