On her 2019 solo debut, Perfect Version, Julia Shapiro went deeper into the rainy, contemplative songcraft that her band Chastity Belt often wrapped in sarcastic humor or volume. It was an introspective and sometimes pensive album, with some of Shapiro's most reflective songwriting. She left her longtime home of Seattle for Los Angeles in early 2020, moving just in time for the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Second solo album Zorked was recorded during Shapiro's first days in a new city, locked down and surrounded by uncertainty. There's a looming sense of dread that runs throughout Zorked, but rather than retreating into even softer, more timid tones, Shapiro explores distortion and heavier arrangements on much of the album, mirroring the suffocating emotional state she and the world at large were living through in early 2020 with layers of doomy guitars and feedback wails. Album opener "Death (XIII)" is a great tone-setter, ironically starting with the words "This is the end" and sludgy instrumentation that sounds like a tape that's been slowed down to half speed. The song's chorus is still melodic, but the entire track is dressed in anxiety and confusion. Shapiro's woozy vocals and the bleak metallic overtones of the song are perfect for its sentiments of dread and disillusionment. The weary acoustic guitars of songs like "Wrong Time" and "Hellscape" speak to Shapiro's Pacific Northwestern roots, recalling the exhausted brilliance of Elliott Smith or a less-reverb-shrouded Grouper. The livelier rock songs also have hints of Pacific Northwestern influence, moving at the same steady trudge as the Wipers' toned-down 1993 album Silver Sail. Shapiro utilizes different approaches as she wrestles with complex feelings throughout the album, with noisy shoegaze tones on the slow-motion dream of "Pure Bliss" and fingerpicked acoustic guitars and synths on the moody and atmospheric "Hall of Mirrors." Multiple songs on Zorked have lyrical references to illusions and feeling disconnected, but there's never any resolution to be found. An album all about uneasy emotions, Zorked is harrowing and beautiful. Shapiro uses these songs to perfectly articulate the specific experience of waiting for a scary time to end while fighting the thought that things might just be awful from here on out. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi

1		Death (XIII)
2		Come With Me
3		Wrong Time
4		Someone
5		Reptile! Reptile!
6		Pure Bliss
7		Hellscape
8		Do Nothing About It
9		Zorked
10		Hall of Mirrors

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