Album Review: Chastity Belt by Chastity Belt

In the autumn of their musicianhood, Chastity Belt's fourth record is a transition from the band's summer adolescence into an approaching wintered maturity. The band have gone through an immense metamorphosis since their earlier works, and on their latest album, they remain worthy contenders in the highly saturated dream pop wheelhouse.   Though the change in the Seattle four-piece's style is significant, the band have managed to stay true to their roots. They're a far cry from their "Cool Slut" days, but in their latest record, they've ….

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Chastity Belt were roughly 100 miles from Asheville, North Carolina when lead vocalist Julia Shapiro reached her breaking point. Just before touring their last album, 2017's I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, Shapiro split up with her long-term partner and had a possibly cancerous portion of her thyroid removed. She toughed it out on the road for about a month, when her bandmates--guitarist Lydia Lund, bassist Annie Truscott, and drummer Gretchen Grimm--collectively decided it was time to hit pause.

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DIIV, Real Estate, Soccer Mommy, Japanese Breakfast, Surfer Blood, Snail Mail, Big Thief, and Chastity Belt: what do each of these bands have in common? The jaunty, jangly guitars. Ladies and gents over in Brooklyn really love it, and it's enjoyed in other trendy places, too. So how does Walla Walla, Washington's Chastity Belt set itself apart? By inflating its own bubble, understanding it, and staying in it.

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Though self-titled albums can sometimes feel lacking in imagination, with Chastity Belt's fourth album, it feels like an aphorism, a statement of intent. And well it might. Earmarking the end of a brief hiatus, it's mellower, more introspective than previous offerings, while at the same time feeling as poignantly 'Chastity Belt' as anything that's come before it.

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