Perfect Version

Description

When Julia Shapiro flew home from a cancelledChastity Belt tour in April 2018, everything in her life felt out of control.Dealing with health issues, freshly out of a relationship, and in the middle ofan existential crisis, she realized halfway through a tour supporting herbands third album I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone that she wasgoing through too much to continue. I was really struggling; I was reallydepressed. I felt like I couldnt sing or be a person, Shapiro recalls. Atthat point I couldnt even imagine playing a show again, I was so over it.

Returning home to a newly empty Seattleone-bedroom apartment, Shapiro had wanted for a long time to learn how torecord and mix her own music, and out of the uncertainty of the future of her musiccareer and her health, she began to record the songs that would become PerfectVersion,her solo debut for Hardly Art. What she created in the space of ten songs is anintimate and beautifully self-aware examination of feeling lost in the lifeyouve created for yourself. Its an album of shimmering guitars and layeredvocals that feels vast in the emotional depth it conveys and masterful in theway each song is intentionally crafted and recorded.

Throughout the record Shapiro tries ondifferent ways of living, all thematically centered around the idea of what itwould be like to be a perfect version of yourself. How can someone be soblindly confident/I wanna know that trick, she wonders on Natural, theopening track that begins using another person as a mirror and then pans backto a bigger picture: what would it take to really love yourself? The album ispeppered with ideas of what self-improvement could look likewhether itslearning a skill and living out in the woods, going to bed at a reasonablehour, or even more playful, deeply relatable lines like I should really deletemy Instagram.

Shapiro has a knack for turning simple imagesinto something profound, drawing influence from songwriters like Elliott Smithto capture complicated moods. The everyday act of circling the block trying tofind a parking spot becomes a metaphor for trying and feeling like you cantquite get anything done. All my problems feel like paper/I can finally ripthem up, she sings on the title track, describing a moment of lightness inhanging out with friends who can find humor in your failure at least I have myfriends to laugh at what Ive done.

Over the course of a tumultuous year of tryingto find stability amidst depression and surgery, Shapiro ultimatelyrediscovered the parts of music that she loved through the process. Herperfectionist qualities create an album that shines in tiny lyrical moments andmeticulous guitar parts. When the rest of my life felt out of control, I feltlike this was my chance to be in control of everything, says Shapiro. Sheplays all the instruments (save for a mouth trumpet solo by Darren Hanlon andguest violin by Annie Truscott) and after recording and mixing the first batchof four songs at the Vault studio with Ian LeSage decided to record the finalsix tracks alone in her apartment, adding drums in the studio later andlearning to mix them with the help of her friend David Hrivnak. PerfectVersion is a fully realized vision from a gifted songwriter finding a moreintimate voice. So what comes next? she questions on the album closer EmptyCup which explores the quiet satisfaction of being alone with yourself andcreating a blank slate. A lasting sense of self, she concludes.

— Robin Edwards