Chastity Belt

Over a decade into their existence, Chastity Belt remains true to itself. It’s a joke told in a college town that became a living, breathing rock band. It’s a quartet of four friends–Julia Shapiro, Lydia Lund, Gretchen Grimm, and Annie Truscott–in dialogue with each other and the world. Across four albums to dazzling effect, their work stands as a deeply moving extended meditation on parties, relationships, power dynamics, sincerity, and aging–all delivered without even a hint of heavy-handedness.

“Fake” / “Fear” the band’s new single, picks up where their self-titled fourth album left off. “Fear”’s snarling riff, soaring chorus, and Moby-Dick imagery came to singer and guitarist Lydia Lund after she dreamt of what she described as “gut-wrenching fear” caused by a “neverending series of unknowns.”

After recording instrumentals with engineer Samur Khouja, Lund tracked her vocals while visiting her parents, repeating the chorus, “It’s just the fear,” over and over with increasing, soaring intensity.

In her words: “My mom knocked on the door and asked, ‘Is there anything you want to talk to me about? Is there something you’re afraid of?’ At that point, I realized she thought I was doing some kind of primal scream therapy. In a way, I guess I am...honestly, feels pretty good!”

Like “Fear,” a mantra sits at the heart of “Fake,” on which Julia Shapiro examines her inability to be vulnerable. “I’m a fake,” she sings repeatedly, as she takes stock of a situation in which all language broke down and communication failed. “The song is about not being able to be honest with someone and say what you mean,” she explains. “I wrote it because I couldn’t express in words how I was feeling.”

These two songs emphasize the dual nature of Chastity Belt: interior and exterior, catharsis and introspection, play and hesitation. Yet more than anything else, they are the work of four friends with the unique ability to render heady emotional territory lighter than air and the power to make that feeling universal.