“How did I get here?” “Do you ever dream about what it’s like to give up?” “I wanna feel like nothing’s wrong, sleep it off.” “I should quit my job and get a life/Fuck Friday nights.” Or my favorite, “I’m not OK”—as a chorus. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear that Seattle female alt-pop quartet Chastity Belt was vying for the coveted title of “most bummed-out group in a bummed-out town” (non-fake news: We had only four sunny days in five months). And yet, there they are in their breakout video for the album’s opening cut, “Different Now,” performing a goofy flannel-shirted homage to Temple Of The Dog’s “Hunger Strike.” Or bobbing and weaving playfully between tracks that otherwise sound like a mashup of K Records and beloved jangle acts like Seapony or La Sera. Simply put: This band knows how to do sweet and sour right, and its third LP—recorded at Portland’s Jackpot! Studio—bears all the trace evidence of a group coming into its own as performers and songwriters. Goofy and awkward, yet mature and sincere, this album showcases a band making magic from the mudpies of millennial angst.
—Corey duBrowa
