Chastity - Chastity (2024) Hi-Res

A self-titled fourth album allows Brandon Williams to bare all.
Chastity’s first few records painted a gripping triptych of teenage suffering in suburban Ontario. But lead singer and principal songwriter Brandon Williams tended to mask his personal stories in character-driven concepts that, while no less affecting, made the music feel slightly, and intentionally, distanced from the artist. This time, on the Whitby, Ontario, band's fourth (not coincidentally self-titled) album, Williams reopens his wounds in plain view and lets you take a good long look at them.

The themes are familiar—depression, loss, anxiety, momentary sunlight—but there’s a new sort of directness to Chastity that’s almost overwhelming when you hear Williams contemplating suicide on “Electrical Tower Dive” or reappraising terrible experiences on “Teeth on the Curb Looking Up at the World.” His voice has always been one of the Chastity sound’s more unique elements, its high register soaring and lilting over crunchy ’90s alt-rock guitars, shoegazy textures, and melodic, thrashy post-hardcore. And it feels even more vulnerable and mesmerizing in this soul-baring context. But what’s just as refreshing are those moments when the band works to keep you on your toes, as they do on the folk-country-esque “Offing,” where a chorus of voices backs Williams up as he sings the surrendering line “If you've got approval, I want it.”