Pacific Northwestern quartet Chastity Belt releases their fifth album, entitled Live Laugh Love, recorded over three sessions in three years – January 2020, November 2021 and 2022.
Chastity Belt was formed in 2010 in Walla Walla, Washington, and is made up of Julia Shapiro on vocals and guitar, Lydia Lund on guitar, Annie Truscott on bass, and Gretchen Grimm on drums. Unlike their previous efforts, Live Laugh Love finds all four members of the band singing: Lund provides the vocals on “Funny” and “I-90 Bridge,” while Truscott sings on “Kool-Aid,” and Grimm on “Tethered.”
Embracing 11 tracks, high points include the opener, “Hollow,” riding gentle, gleaming guitars that shimmer with translucent warm colours. Shapiro’s vocals imbue the lyrics with lingering feelings of being adrift on the world’s ocean while still accepting the situation for what it is. “Clumsy” exudes savours of grunge merged with shoegaze, giving the tune the sensation of hovering against a hazy backdrop. Its raw essence is satisfyingly, dreamily significant.
The low-slung, trickling intro to “It’s Cool” flows into a minimal melody oozing undulating sonic hues and then takes on edgier tones, accentuating the sublime coasting sense of the harmonics.
Dark and resonant with elusive echoes, “Kool-Aid” features hints of psychedelia and shoegaze, supplying the tune with an oil and water atmosphere. A personal favourite because of its smouldering guitars and throbbing rhythm, “Chemtrails” pushes ahead relentlessly, adding ominous-lite surfaces.
“Tethered” starts out on emerging layers and slowly escalates to a feverish wash of colours as wistful harmonies bloom to full-sized, translucent beauty. At once thoughtful and vulnerable, Live Laugh Love drips with mature, evolving introspection.
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