New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Montreal-based indie trio Braids have announced their decision to push the release of their new album Shadow Offering to June 19th due to the virus pandemic. In the meantime, however, they will continue to release new songs in the coming weeks. Today, they shared their new video for single "Snow Angel," a powerful opus that features singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston's most visceral performance to date as she leans passionately into her anger, diving deeper into frustrations and anxieties about her internal and external worlds.
Of the track, Braids said: "'Snow Angel' was written in the immediate wake of the 2016 US election, as our collective conscience took a sharp inhale. It's a diary entry of sorts - a snapshot of the mind grappling with our era's endless barrage of content and destruction, continents away and close to home. *This* moment, with our world in the midst of a pandemic, is admittedly a new context. But I can't help but sense the song speaks to feelings many of us are experiencing - uncertainty, angst, and a desperate desire to make sense of it all.
"For me, it was deeply therapeutic to write and sing this song; saying things out loud can help us to not feel so alone, can help validate our natural fears about the future of our world, and can bring to light some of the hard questions that many of us are asking ourselves. I believe that art can change our relationship to fear. We hope this song can offer you a moment of catharsis and relief, in the same way writing and performing it has for us."
"Snow Angel" first debuted on The FADER who stated "Producer Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) lets the band breathe throughout the epic track, letting the energy ebb and flow as Raphaelle Standell-Preston switches her vocals between singing and spoken-word. The whole thing builds to a frantic final third in which the chaos and confusion is palpable."
Releasing through Secret City Records, Shadow Offering 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. A luscious and expansive release, it 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.
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 dedicated to Standell-Preston's best friend 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."
Due to the unfortunate circumstances, Braids' US and European spring tour has been postponed to the fall. The new dates will be announced shortly.
