Virginity belt
Live laugh Love
Compress suicide
09 April 2024
Web Exclusive
After five years away, Walla Walla, Washington's low-key dream rock legends Chastity Belt have new stock on the shelf with their fifth album. Live laugh Love. The promise made in such a wickedly extravagant title is extraordinary. Chastity Belt have proven over the course of, heck, it's really been over a decade now, that they can flip expectation like a hairpin, and so it's worth a smile to know that the four-piece have slapped that moniker on their loneliest. the most purple bruised record to date.
Lead single “Hollow” has guitarist Lydia Lund curl notes around Gretchen Grimm's bass drum while Julia Shapiro slowly breathes out J Mascis' lyrics like “Waiting for some sign / Wasting time / Breathe in the hollow air / Nothing's there ” and it's not exactly slow, but it's just sad, and it's not sparse, but it's certainly sparser than its “shoegaze” label might allow. It sounds like a delicate spider falling asleep.
The record is so well-crafted, so well-crafted and masterful that it ends up sounding effortless. Check out the deceptive simplicity of “It's Cool” – that monotone, almost monotone vocal, those clear, straight bass notes from Annie Truscott, “What's the point of anything / If I always feel the same?” And then a garage band crunch chorus? Well, this is the kind of laid back, lazy sound that only comes from good old fashioned hard graft and overwhelming emotional destruction.
The melodies sneak up on you, just like when you first heard 2013's “Seattle Party” and thought you might be awkwardly in love. They don't bother with anything as cheesy as hooks, the melodies are invitations, come if you will—the restraint they show on “Clumsy” from turning the thing into a storming alt-rock (c) hit is the very epitome of their cool. This song has the words “I don't wanna be a bitch but I think you gotta grow up” and it's as good a line as any rock record could need.
So they're not just funny, they don't just throw out goodies like “Kool-Aid” and nostalgic postcards like “I-90 Bridge,” they have lines like “Calling on bikes on the I-90 bridge / 9 p.m. / You feel like flying' that make you want to have the Chastity Belt document yours life in song and to be heard only Half as wicked, a tenth as romantic.
Are you saying it's a lonely disk at the top of the page? Maybe this is wrong. Because it's a warm record, as cool as it is, and it's a celebratory record as low as it sounds. The celebration is in the camaraderie of the band, the musical interplay and the sweet scenes they provoke, the ironic laughter they bring to you. You'll be listening to it for weeks, months, especially the perfect closing kiss 'Like That'. “We stayed up late / I used to / I don't know why I never called you again,” and do things really get any simpler, more complicated than that? Hard to be lonely wrapped in such an album.
Now it's time to show some personal restraint and not end with a callback or pun on the album title. Let's just say: Excellent record. (www.chastitybeltmusic.com)
Author Rating: 8.5/10
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