Name: Shadow Offering
Brand: Braids

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SCR97LPX

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Colour

Colour details

Opaque Red.

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Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: Yes

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2020-06-19

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0680341970011

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / red

Artist

Braids

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Secret City

Braids is a Canadian indie rock/shoegaze ensemble hailing from Calgary, Alberta. The band was formed in 2006 and consists of members Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Katie Lee, Taylor Smith, and Austin Tufts.

With their unique blend of indie rock and shoegaze influences, Braids has garnered critical acclaim for their atmospheric soundscapes and introspective lyrics. Their music captures the essence of raw emotion and vulnerability, creating an immersive experience for listeners.

Known for their captivating live performances, Braids has toured extensively around the world, showcasing their talent on stages big and small. Their dedication to pushing boundaries and experimenting with different musical styles sets them apart as true innovators in the indie rock scene.

Secret City Records is a Montreal-based independent record label and publishing company. With a label code of LC 30745, Secret City is dedicated to discovering and promoting talented artists from various genres. They provide a platform for musicians to showcase their unique sound and connect with music lovers around the world.
As an authoritative figure in the music industry, Secret City Records has built a reputation for releasing high-quality albums that resonate with listeners. Their diverse roster includes both established acts and emerging talents, ensuring a constant stream of fresh and innovative music.
With their commitment to supporting artists throughout their careers, Secret City Records offers comprehensive services such as artist development, marketing strategies, and distribution support. By fostering creativity and nurturing talent, they have become a trusted name in the independent music scene.

Braids have been taking the time and space necessary for little miracles to occur. Burrowed in their Montreal studio, the band has spent the better part of three years crafting Shadow Offering, their 4th album, via their new label home, Secret City.

The band sketched and re-sketched new material for eighteen months before lucky circumstance found Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) renting out space in their studio. The four began wandering into each others’ rooms, curious about each others’ projects. Typically opting for a private and insular creation process, the friendship between the four saw the band sharing their songs with Walla, and naturally resulted in Walla co-producing and engineering Shadow Offering. Pushing the band out of their comfort zone, he at once broke and unified the band’s dynamic, unearthing individual creative energy long buried over the years. With a new sense of confidence, listeners will find Braids at their most personal, unabashedly flexing through their new music.

A luscious and expansive release, Shadow Offering leads us through a sonic tapestry of narrative. With heart-breaking 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. Its 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, retract.

The creative process saw Tufts exploring groovier and more supportive rhythms, while Standell-Preston and Smith picked up their guitars in a serious way, something they hadn’t done since Native Speaker. Young Buck, Shadow Offering’s lead single, sees Braids at their most playful and confident. An effervescent ode to impossible love, it exudes an undeniable magnetism reminiscent of the band’s breakthrough works Lemonade and Plath Heart.

With Shadow Offering, Standell-Preston’s voice is visceral as always, conveying a new confidence and rawness we’ve yet to hear from her. Fans of commanding 90’s songwriters like Fiona Apple and Alanis Morissette will relish in her voice’s strength and lyrical aptitude.

Shadow Offering

Music GB

Buy Braids - Shadow Offering (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.