Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Best of 2011 #2: Braids - Native Speaker

Only a couple of albums this year truly made me emotional from the power of their music. Braids are a great band from Calgary, AB that didn't get the proper attention for album of the year from other critics, in my opinion. One, they released their debut album Native Speaker on the tiny Flemish Eye record label (Kanine Records in the States), and two, the album came out in the doldrums of music releases, early January. I had been paying attention to this band since they started their careers in 2008 as The Neighbourhood Council. Their debut EP as that band, Set Pieces, was a slow burn of spacy post-punk. The EP simmered and sparkled but never seemed to coalesce. With Native Speaker, the band truly found their places as musicians and the result was a lush album of sprawling post-punk with pop and goth tinges. Their sound is quite similar to how Animal Collective sounded like before they started listening to their own hype.

http://youtu.be/1RnfroBOgO0

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