By Hannah Steinkopf-Frank
As band origin stories go, Chastity Belt’s is one of the best. The now Seattle-based group met at Whitman College. With not much to do in Walla Walla, the members would go to frat parties, tip over tables and yell “chastity belt.” With little experience, Chastity Belt began writing songs and five years later, the group has released its first major label album, Time to Go Home on the label Hardly Art.
The album is a follow-up to 2013’s No Regrets, and has many of the traits of a second album: The production is smoother, the songs are more complete and there is a certain confidence that can only come from having a successful first release. But unlike many second albums, Time to Go Home doesn’t feel like the leftovers of No Regrets, nor does Chastity Belt lose its signature lo-fi sound.
The album opens with “Drone,” a surfer rock track perfect for listening to while driving at night. Lead singer Julia Shapiro laments about “just another man trying to teach me something.” It’s a downer start, but it sets the tone for the rest of the album.
Shapiro and other guitarist Lydia Lund’s vintage surfer guitar riffs pair with Gretchen Grimm’s simple drumming to forge a retro sound.
In many ways, Time to Go Home is a party album. It builds from the excitement of getting ready to go out, the inevitable let down of a party — “On the Floor” is one of the most self-reflective party songs I’ve heard — and ends with the realization that it’s “time to go home.” But to assume the album is purely about going out ignores its political messages.
On “Cool Slut,” Shapiro sings, “To all the girls in the world trying to take off their shirts/ Ladies it’s ok to be slutty.” It’s not a far cry from other modern feminist anthems: Chastity Belt would totally party with Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.” But there’s a certain ambivalence on “Cool Slut,” and most of the album, that gives the impression that the band is holding back. This uncertainty is apparent in songs like “Why Try” and “IDC.” On “IDC,” Shapiro sings about being drunk out of boredom and repeats, “Is it cool not to care?” The otherwise shoegazey track ends with a droning fade-out, and like Shapiro, “I don’t really care.”
Inevitably, “Time to Go Home” ends with the title track. Annie Truscott’s opening bass line quickly builds to one of the album’s few optimistic tracks, both musically and lyrically. Shapiro sings with more emotion than on any other track that she finally “figured it out.”
While this might be the album’s simplest message, it rings the truest. As Chastity Belt grew out of its college dorm room, the group has kept the sound that propelled it to stay together for five years. While Time to Go Home might not literally be a return to frat parties and beer pong, it’s a reassurance that the band never left the party.