Montreal-based indie trio Braids will release their new album Shadow Offering on June 19th via Secret City Records. Co-produced with Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie, the album finds the band at their most personal, unabashedly flexing a new sense of confidence through songs that reach a higher level of artistry and collaboration. Today they shared their new single "Just Let Me," a song that explores the push and pull of a relationship, the narratives created between partners, and inevitable hardships of love. The accompanying video features singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston's directorial debut with collaborator Derek Branscombe.
Pre-order and pre-save Shadow Offering to your music library here.
The band also shares the postponed European tour dates set for November 2020, see below for all dates.
"The song was born of a desire to get through to one's partner, to work through those feelings of complacency, stagnation, of pointless arguments; when you feel your partner, though sitting across the table from you, is further away than if they were not there at all," stated the band. "It's a yearning to understand how a love that was once there and so clear, could slip away. It asks the universal question that so many relationships encounter along their journey - where did our love go?"
Raphaelle continued, "I am grateful to have been able to explore this very question with two incredible dancers and dear friends Stephen John Quinlan, Justin De Luna, and choreographer Axelle Munezero. It was an emotional yet liberating experience - a lot of sweat, tears, and laughter went into this. I have to say, it's one of the things I am most proud of having a part of."
A luscious and expansive release, Shadow Offering leads us through a sonic tapestry of narrative. With heartbreaking honesty and precision, listeners traverse a nuanced and complicated world: one full of beautiful contradiction. Although the album directs itself at the failures of people to love and be loved, it also seeks to restore justice and attain blissful union. It's arc crests through the dark towards the light and learns how to dance with the dizzying rhythms of the heart. The songs bubble, sustain, dissolve, expand, and retract.
"Just Let Me" follows the release of "Snow Angel," a powerful opus that features Raphaelle's most visceral performance to date as she leans passionately into her anger, diving deeper into frustractions and anxieties about her internal and external worlds. The FADER stated, "The whole thing builds to a frantic final third in which the chaos and confusion is palpable."
Lead single "Young Buck" is also out now, an effervescent ode to impossible love that exudes an undeniable magnetism. It was praised by Pitchfork, The New York Times, The Fader, MTV, Stereogum, and Consequence of Sound who called it "a bouncy good time; in the tug-of-war between mind and matter, these pulsing synths are clearly on the side of the body."
Last fall they released "Eclipse (Ashley)," a song that sinks deep into a feeling of reverie for nature, the love found in friendship, and the vital essence of personal reflection. The New York Times raved "Raphaelle Standell-Preston sings with openhearted earnestness" while Stereogum named it "one of the best Braids songs ever, a power ballad built from cascading pianos, off-kilter rhythms, and a rising surge of atmospheric strings."
TOUR DATES
November 12, 2020 - Cambridge, UK - Portland Arms
November 13, 2020 - Brighton, UK - Patterns
November 14, 2020 - Guildford, UK - Boileroom
November 15, 2020 - Glasgow, UK - CCA
November 17, 2020 - Liverpool, UK - Phase One
November 18, 2020 - Manchester, UK - Yes Pink Room
November 19, 2020 - Leeds, UK - Headroom House
November 21, 2020 - Leicester, UK - The Cookie
November 22, 2020 - Bristol, UK - The Exchange
November 24, 2020 - London, UK - Moth Club
November 25, 2020 - Paris, FR - Pop Up
November 26, 2020 - Rotterdam, NL - V11
November 27, 2020 - Utrecht, NL - ACU
November 29, 2020 - Berlin, DE - Kantine Am Bergain
November 30, 2020 - Amsterdam, NL - Cinetol
December 2, 2020 - Schorndorf, DE - Manufaktur
December 3, 2020 - Brussels, BE - Beursschouwburg
December 5, 2020 - Arhus, DK - Tape
December 6, 2020 - Copenhagen, DK - Vega
Watch “Snow Angel” video here.
Watch “Young Buck” video here.
Watch “Eclipse (Ashley)” video here.
Braids online
