The new album from Julia Shapiro, Perfect Version, out this Friday via Hardly Art, is everything that followers of Shapiro's Chastity Belt would want from a solo release from a band member. A remarkably personal record, and the product of the singer's very public battle with depression, this is a fantastic, and deeply affecting, release.
While "Natural" and the title cut here on Perfect Version sound enough like Chastity Belt material to please any fan of that band, other numbers here push things in interesting new directions. On "Shape", for example, Julia Shapiro uses a skipping guitar-figure that sounds almost like something from a Felt record to anchor a number that very nearly drifts into the kind of territory most would call dream-pop, while "Harder to Do" is even better, fuzzy, near-shoegaze-style riffs carrying Julia's vocals forward into the sun. Elsewhere, "Around the Block" sees Shapiro use a shuffling rhythm to buttress her subtle and insouciant vocals, while "I Lied" is faintly brighter, flashes of old Galaxie 500 numbers peeking through the seams here.
On paper, a record that's the result of depression and drama sounds like a recipe for pretension. Instead, Julia Shapiro, wisely, keeps things simple and largely concise. And overall, Perfect Version is a wonderful album, one where the performer never lets the seriousness of the motivations behind the art make the entire endeavor heavy-handed. Julia Shapiro exhibits a lightness of touch here that is positively stunning, such that the closest comparison point to Perfect Version is not only the last Chastity Belt album, but some of those Nick Drake and Elliott Smith ones too.
Perfect Version is out on Friday via Hardly Art.
More details on Julia Shapiro via the official Facebook page for Chastity Belt.
[Photo Eleanor Petry]