Friday, September 20, 2019

Chastity Belt - Chastity Belt


I'm never quite sure why bands release eponymously titled albums midway through their career. Is it just lack of imagination or creative dearth? In the case of Chastity Belt it's clearly neither as their fourth album is as good as or better than anything they've done.


They've certainly had a strange backstory. Starting as something of a Frat Band, with some pretty vulgar and frankly puerile concerns in their early days, with time they've matured quickly into one of the finest groups America has to offer, their records issuing forth increasingly powerful if troubled poise and beauty.


They've refined a template now from which they work. Underpinned by a bass reminiscent of early Peter Hook and Simon Gallup, their songs consistently have a way of resisting gravity and conveying languid but effecting sadness.


Chastity Belt doesn't waver much from the template they've established but enriches it. It's an assured and impressive record. What the band lack in variety they more than compensate for with quiet intensity, determination  and grace.


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