Track: Braids share two new tracks and start US tour

BRAIDS are a Montreal-based, three-piece band composed of Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Taylor Smith and Austin Tufts.  Formed in 2007, BRAIDS have solidified a decade-long reputation for their musical ingenuity and established themselves as one of Canada’s most acclaimed art rock bands, releasing three albums: Deep In The Iris (2015), Flourish // Perish (2013), Native Speaker (2011), and the EP Companion (2016).

BRAIDS’ most recent album Deep In The Iris was a landmark record for the band, winning the 2016 Juno for Alternative Album of the Year.  With Standell-Preston’s vocals as the pillar of their sound, BRAIDS weave organic and electronic elements together amidst a lyrical landscape that is intimate and emotionally-immersive.

BRAIDS’ two new singles, Collarbones and Burdock & Dandelion, reflect their quintessential sound, yet also exhibit a new, bold and potent musical and lyrical maturity.  Collarbones is a jazzy, late night ballad, which sadly loses it’s way singing about cleavage. I get the point they’re making, instagram/shallowness etc. but it’s all been done before, and it really could have been executed in a better way. Which is a shame as the music in this is fantastic.

Burdock & Dandelion embraces glitchy industrial beats and some wonderful synth work. The stronger of the two singles, this is Braids riffing on the same lyrical themes, still talking directly about breasts, it feels more like a spoken word monologue than a traditional song structure.

You can catch them on tour below.

TOUR DATES

05/03 – Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa

05/04 – Winooski, VT – Waking Windows

05/06 – Cambridge, MA – Middle East

05/08 – Washington, DC – Songbyrd

05/09 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s

05/11 – New York, NY – Zone One @ Elsewhere

05/12 – Annandale-on-Hudson, NY – Smog