Braids:Native Speaker

Tags: Art Rock, Braids, Canada, Flemish Eye, Kanine Records, Montreal, Native Speaker, Quebec

7/10 dropps
Record Label: Flemish Eye / Kanine Records
You wake up in an empty wood. The sound of a nearby spring fills your mind as you gently blink yourself awake. You hear a distant birdcall then a low, vibrating drone begins to weave itself through the trees. You have now entered the world of Braids through their opening selection “Lemonade” from new album Native Speaker.

If you’re somebody who’s noticed the recent musical trends of earthy, soothing sounds combined with beautiful chord combinations and flowing melodies, this album is another case in point. Native Speaker offers a new palate of euphonious selections that will inevitably please and amuse us long enough to keep us from calling them on some kind of new-agey bluff. This general archetypical outfit has certainly been done before – a band layers contrasting harmonies and textures along with a few dozen waterfalls for seven or eight minutes, et voilà, right? However, Braids takes this earthy concept and morphs it into something new and appetizing for a much wider range of musical tastes.

The second song on the album, “Plath Heart,” attacks like a resilient love begging for attention, and the progressing stringed force brings about the unexpected desire to dance. Following closely is the out- of-this-world “Glass Deers” as well as Native Speaker’s title track, the song that seems to define Braids’ intentions to design a grand, new sound with a lasting effect. Songs “Lammicken” and “Same Mum” take off in a more Fleet Foxy direction with a few groovier guitar diddles and cave-like reverberations.

Throughout this entire entrancing lull fest, vocalist Raphaelle Standell-Preston starts off slow and tender. Subdued sighs entice the listener, pulling you deeper into Braids’ dreamy wonderland before dousing you with a splash of wailing color that Standell-Preston incorporates swiftly; the whole ordeal is gladly repeated numerous times. The album’s strong finisher, “Little Hand,” is eerily reminiscent of Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing,” leaving a little more to be desired as I look forward to their next release.

One might question Braids’ interspersed tic-ah tic-ah’s and all-too-frequent howls of our favorite f-word, but in this instance, it only furthers to sell the overall effect. Braids members take what lyrical sentiments they do have (paired alongside a pre-disposition to create downright beautiful music), and meld it into an Animal Collective/Fleet Foxes sort of sound. This new age, alternative feel wraps itself lightly around an already-high tier of expectations for the band. Slowly, Native Speaker extracts what little patience we have left for unplanned beauty as we sit back and let the music enfold us.

-Alcy Sivyer

Thu Feb 10

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Braids:Native Speaker

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