The first time listening to Women’s Rights by Childbirth was a great moment for me. It takes a while for me to discover the next piece of music I’m going to fall in love with for a couple of months at a time, but when I know, I know. You know?
A pre-existing love for Chastity Belt—the lead singer’s Julia Shapiro’s other musical outlet—paved the way for my admiration. But the lyrical content of Chastity Belt—humorous, smart, but generally scattered—is nothing in comparison with what Shapiro fleshes out through the course of her new band’s album.
Women’s Rights adds a sharp, sarcastic edge to the contemporary punk scene and paints a specific picture of life as a young female college grad. This particularity is charming to me, as a similarly-placed person in American culture, though it understandably might not be an immediate draw to others. What I heard in Childbirth’s lyrics was a unique approach towards a very specific niche in today’s culture, and the humorous blunt attitude used to throw it all together creates a bizarre, fuck-you microcosm of feminist mischief that never takes itself too seriously in a good way.
While the album is titled “Women’s Rights,” it doesn’t focus on the large-scale political charge of today’s gender issues, instead focusing on biting gender commentary through the use of Tinder, female sexual empowerment (listen to Tech Bros), and weird happenings at baby showers.
For anyone who remembers (and enjoyed) Chastity Belt—the Seattle-based band who played at the Cave two years ago—this band is for you. But it’s better. Shapiro’s lead vocals in Childbirth have the same jarring quality as she contributed to CB, but the narrowed focus on hard-hitting sarcasm about contemporary social life for young women notches up the humor and hits the nail on the head in regards to much-needed feminist fury.
I don’t want to destroy this album by trying to describe it. Here’s a link instead.
(Because simply typing the band name and album title into Google doesn’t really let you find what you’re looking for, here’s a link to NPR’s First Listen):
http://www.npr.org/2015/09/23/442211344/first-listen-childbirth-womens-rights
Notable Tracks:
Siri, Open Tinder
Baby Bump
Tech Bro
And if this piqued your interest about Chastity Belt, here’s a link to their Bandcamp: