Having recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of their debut album No Regerts, Chastity Belt now feel like stalwarts in the American alt-rock scene while still continuing to reveal themselves musically and emotionally. Their new album Live Laugh Love continues to see them open up in both goofy and heartbreaking ways.
They’ve locked into a mode of hazy gorgeousness that helps them to unspool their conflicted feelings on the world – both the personal and at large. And yet, they save space for levity and comedy – as Live Laugh Love‘s ironic/not-ironic title makes clear.
We asked them to put together a submission for our On Deck feature and guitarist Lydia Lund came back to us with her album picks to soundtrack bathtime – a perfect encapsulation of both the fun and the self-care that Chastity Belt are now unafraid to put on display in what they do.
You can check out her picks below, after enjoying the great video for Live Laugh Love‘s opener “Hollow”.
Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music For Airports
[E.G/Polydor/PVC]
I first discovered this record when I was dog-sitting for some family friends out near the foothills of the Cascades. They had started with an old Norwegian homesteader’s cabin which evolved rather fantastically into a sort of ramshackle artists dream house.
I was out there in the winter and after a big snow I was stranded for a few days and I started plugging through their record collection. Once I found this album, I was hooked. It felt magical and eerie in the best way to pipe through the speakers. The pauses in the music accentuated by the snowy silence blanketing the house. No other album brings me down to earth like this one – especially when I put it on while I take a bath.
Adrianne Lenker – instrumentals
[4AD; 2020]
This is another bathtime standby for me. I love to take voice memos of ordinary moments and listen back to them, and somehow this album feels like it captures the most unordinary of ordinary moments.
The chimes, the wind, the clearing of someone’s throat feel beautifully intimate and of course Adrienne Lenker’s guitar playing is a huge inspiration.
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou – Éthiopiques 21 : Ethiopia song (Piano solo)
[Buda Musique; 2005]
When I first heard this album it felt like a hidden gem. Now Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou has nearly 240K monthly listeners on Spotify. In this instance I can’t blame the algorithm for giving the people what they want. I hope she hits 1M. Her songs sound like water to me, unfolding so naturally.
Mitski – The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We
[Dead Oceans; 2023]
The image of “Bug Like an Angel” doesn’t get old to me. This album is a good one to ruminate on. For the most part I don’t want lyrics disturbing my bathing experience, but when I want to hear thoughts besides my own, this is one of the albums I put on.
Chastity Belt’s new album Live Laugh Love is out now on Suicide Squeeze (listen). You can find the band on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Bandcamp and their website.
