{"id":141307,"date":"2024-03-29T11:51:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T11:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/?p=141307"},"modified":"2024-03-29T11:51:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T11:51:52","slug":"chastity-belt-live-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/chastity-belt-live-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Chastity Belt &#8211; Live Laugh Love: Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-141309 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Chastity-Belts-Live-Laugh-Love.jpg\" alt=\"Artwork for the Chastity Belt album Live Laugh Love\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-141284\" src=\"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3.5-Live4ever-stars.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"85\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h2><em>This is Chastity Belt\u2019s own sense of humour writ large, a sisterhood in all but name.<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Live, Laugh, Love is the kind of phrase you see framed on posters, usually right next to something like &#8216;Nobody Leaves Here Sober&#8217; or &#8216;Keep Calm and Let Karma Finish It&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the kind of ultra-bland cliche which in some way you\u2019d expect to find associated sarcastically with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/tag\/Chastity-Belt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chastity Belt<\/a> album (this is after all a band who in the past have given their songs titles like Pussy Weed Beer, Nip Slip and Pissed Pants), but instead the quartet are now very much lining up behind the Zen.<\/p>\n<p>From the brilliantly named Walla Walla, Washington the four Chastity Belt members \u2013 lead singer Julia Shapiro, Lydia Lund (guitar, vocals), Gretchen Grimm (drums, vocals) and Annie Truscott (bass, vocals) \u2014 have been in each other\u2019s orbit for more than a decade since the release of their debut No Regrets, and it seems they couldn\u2019t be happier about it, hence the deceptively throwaway title of their latest outing.<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro says that their bond is a sorority built on a common understanding: &#8216;It really does feel like we\u2019re all fluent in the same language, and a lot of it just happens naturally.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth clarifying at this point however that newcomers from the Prosecco nation shouldn\u2019t be taken in by their fifth album\u2019s apparently off the cuff phrasing: often introverted sounding, Chastity Belt\u2019s music is indebted to a slew of 20th century genres that aren\u2019t exactly a party starting.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t to say there aren\u2019t open doorways for those with some perspective: opener Hollow, with its understated chords and general sense of helplessness, deep dives into the personal malaise of adjusting simply be seen as normal, confessionally saying, &#8216;But instead, all my needs bend\/To fit in, I will sit still with my doubt&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>The path here reflects more the drip-drip of realisation as opposed to an emotional tsunami, a mirror to much of the rest of Live Laugh Love\u2019s contented resignation.<\/p>\n<p>By now, it should be clear to casual listeners that taking anything at face value is a risk. Chemtrails references a superficially well-known conspiracy theory, whilst on the track Chastity Belt serve up almost orthodox rock (Shapiro likens it in phases to Detroit post punk legends Protomartyr), but by contrast the words are about being trapped on a psychological hamster wheel of past regrets.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H6FIoK_dFJc?si=RgPT6wDYsAfYEV7R\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Phew. Heavy stuff? Well, Chastity Belt\u2019s tools \u2013 which include sharing out the vocals and a deft economy in range \u2013 save the collected mass from pathos.<\/p>\n<p>Truscott, for instance, sings for the first time in the band\u2019s history on Kool Aid, a study in Bully-esque post-grunge with quiet-loud contours, whilst highlight I-90 Bridge lyrically unpicks formative experiences as it rides through the heart of 120 Minutes-style alternative pop.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s the argument though that with so much going on, there\u2019s still not quite so much going on; with a drowsy smoke-filled riff, Blue seems to take an age to ignite before it finally arcs towards a feedback horizon, whilst Tethered\u2019s murky shoegaze recalls Warpaint locked in another room and accordingly has a chilly sense of purpose.<\/p>\n<p>The kiss off finally appears however in the guise of Laugh, as at last the sun appears to poke through the haze, the atmospheres offering a clutch of melody and warmth before finally unravelling.<\/p>\n<p>This then is Chastity Belt\u2019s own sense of humour writ large: a sisterhood in all but name, their bond means that <a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/chazzybelt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Live Laugh Love<\/a> isn\u2019t a platitude, but instead a way to approach honouring those around you.<\/p>\n<p>Like most relationships observed by a stranger, it will take a while to understand what\u2019s going on, but there\u2019s enough here to reward the patient and empathetic amongst us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is Chastity Belt\u2019s sense of humour writ large, a sisterhood in all but name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[3167,5722],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live4ever.uk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}