Live Laugh Love＜Blue & Orange Vinyl＞

When they started out, Chastity Belt were a cool indie band with a punky attitude and a pronounced sense of humor, as revealed on their debut album, 2013s No Regerts. Then, principal songwriter Julia Shapiro (who also sings and plays guitar) started letting her funny side take the lead on side projects such as Childbirth and Who Is She? Conversely, her work with Chastity Belt took a cooler and more introspective turn on albums like 2017s I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone and 2019s Chastity Belt, as her lyrics focused more on her thoughts and fears, and the understated guitar interplay between Shapiro and Lydia Lund became their musical signature. After a five-year recording layoff, brought on largely by the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down early sessions for the album, 2024s Live Laugh Love suggests their witty side is starting to make itself heard again, even as their music builds on the subtle six-string give-and-take of Shapiro and Lund. There arent any laugh-out-loud moments on Live Laugh Love, but the nature of human interaction is clearly on Shapiros mind, and after a long stretch when the COVID-19 pandemic was making her feel isolated rather than her anxieties, there is a recurring undertow in these songs where the value of friendship and community is celebrated, even if individual relationships are still a problem. (For instance, in "Chemtrails," she sings, "Well be good, or at least we should/What more can we really ask for?," while "I-90 Bridge" includes the lines "Tell your girlfriend shes got nothing to fear/Im set in my head/My bodys a different story.") If thematically Live Laugh Love suggests someone trying to will good things into being, musically these songs find Chastity Belt expanding on the sounds that made their previous two albums memorable. The dynamics and textures of the guitars bring out the best in one another, and the rhythm section of Annie Truscott (bass) and Gretchen Grimm (drums) brings added texture to the bottom end and gives the performances the solid, imaginative foundation they need. Maybe Chastity Belt arent always laughing and loving on this album, but the music is alive and eloquent, and this is a welcome return from an interesting, consistently rewarding quartet. ~ Mark Deming