BRAIDS NEW ALBUM ***SHADOW OFFERIN*G OUT NOW VIA SECRET CITY RECORDS**

LIVE ALBUM STREAM + CHAT ON YOUTUBE

TODAY AT 1PM EST

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

SHADOW OFFERING IS “ALBUM OF THE WEEK” VIA STEREOGUM AND THE LINE OF BEST FIT

★★★★ ½ - The Line of Best Fit

★★★★ - Stereogum

★★★★ - Uncut

★★★★ - Clash Magazine

★★★ - NME

Braids brand new album “Shadow Offering”, co-produced by Chris Walla, is out now via Secret City Records. To celebrate, Braids will host a listening event today (Monday June 22) on YouTube and will be chatting live with fans as they listen to the record in its entirety. The event will begin at 1PM ET.

JOIN THE LISTENING PARTY ON YOUTUBE AT 1 PM ET HERE

LISTEN/BUY SHADOW OFFERING HERE

Braids are also releasing today the official video for the opening track “Here 4 U”. They share the inspiration behind the song : “Here 4 U is an oldie in our books. The original demo dates back four or five years, written while Austin and I spent a few months snowbirding in Los Angeles. It was one of the first songs we wrote for Shadow Offering, but the last we finished. We nearly lost this one on the cutting room floor, but in finding the album’s identity in the final weeks of mixing, so too did this song. In a way, it encapsulates the process of making this record – bursts of excitement and exploration, stretches of self-doubt, long days, long months, and the blissful self-discovery of finding our voice for this album.

Here 4 U is a song about love, about a fleeting relationship, about the aftermath, and about the desire to be there for someone in a new light. “The fear of love, the fear of what it means to give, and what it takes, to protect it.” It’s the swirling thoughts as love falls apart, and the pillars to hold on to throughout.”

WATCH/LISTEN TO “HERE 4 U” HERE

Praises for “Shadow Offering”

“The music – lush electronic textures, delicate piano melodies and driving rhythms – is cinematic in scope, offering Armageddon and salvation in turn. 8/10” – Uncut

"‘Shadow Offering,’ is beautiful and heart wrenching, pulling on listeners’ heartstrings. The album offers a sanctuary by easing anxiety and fueling hope, acting as a sort of security blanket for these unnerving times. 8/10” - Clash Magazine

“a gloriously intricate fourth outing [...] Braids have refined themselves, ready to offer mature, emotional soundscapes of understanding. 9/10” - The Line of Best Fit

“Braids are incisive, and conjure up a kind of confiding emotional warmth; Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla’s rich production is the ideal match.” - NME

“…[Shadow Offering] feels like the culmination of what Braids have been building towards over the last 10 years. It’s glimmering and assured, an album that’s constantly refining and one-upping itself. The Canadian band’s songs have always been massive, bursting at the seams with ideas, but they’ve never sounded as good or as crystallized as they do on Shadow Offering.” - Stereogum (50 best albums of 2020 so far)

“Raphaelle Standell-Preston sings with openhearted earnestness.” - The New York Times

“The whole thing builds to a frantic final third in which the chaos and confusion is palpable." - The Fader (About “Snow Angel”)

"a bouncy good time; in the tug-of-war between mind and matter, these pulsing synths are clearly on the side of the body." - Consequence of Sound (About “Young Buck”)

“An undulating piano carries heartfelt sentiments, presented in a voice that stylistically manages to pay tribute to both Joni Mitchell and Alanis Morissette.” – The Globe and Mail (About Eclipse (Ashley)

“Just Let Me” and “Snow Angel” part of Under the Radar’s Best Songs of the week

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. 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 contradictions. 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.

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