Montreal’s cerebral electronic pop trio Braids have just shared the two instructive tracks from their brand new double A sided digital single ‘Collarbones / Burdock & Dandelion’. It marks their return after releasing the impressive 2106 long player Deep In The Iris. Musically, ‘Collarbones’ has a wryness and poignancy in its soulful and lounge like feel while ‘Burdock & Dandelion’ trades in uncertainty represented by fleeting elements of synth, sparse hats and an awkward off beat. Both are clever musical representations to accompany a withering critique of gender inequality, consumer culture, social media obsession and the incessant need for instant gratification that results from pressures created by all four.
Both tracks trade in lyrics that mirror a society deeply mired in insidious forms of damaging sexual double standards. And women are subjected to the cruellest of hoaxes and most vicious of ironies by a capitalist triage of male owned power as a result. Its part of capitalism’s grand design; to manufacture insecurity and need. The mass media, the cosmetics industry and social media, all owned by men, profit at every turn from promoting an omnipresent male fantasy driven female body image that most women can never attain. They’re actually never allowed to think they have either which is where the “capitalism of self care” takes over.
Women are then incessantly encouraged to spend billions of dollars on products that promise but obviously never deliver on these hopelessly unattainable beauty standards. Importantly, this involves the ongoing transfer of money from the half of society already financially disadvantaged to the top echelons of the financially advantaged other half. This is not to mention the ongoing damage to the women’s self concept and the resultant lack of self confidence and self-esteem created by that damage. This is made all the worse by the selfie culture and the pressure to share sexualised images on social media, all the while eagerly waiting for a waft of affirmation. Often from people they will never or don’t want to meet.
But rather than rail against the victims and their seeming superciliousness, Raphaelle Standell Preston’s words and vocal connection offer a kind of self-awareness and personal succour, a reassurance of just how plainly false and obviously futile such an existence can be. The music reflects a dissatisfication and growing longing in many for a more authentic existence. Listen to both tracks and read their lyrics direct from the press release in full below. The double single is out now on Flemish Eye. Buy here.
Collarbones
Braids (CAN)
From the digital single, Collarbones/Burdock & Dandelion’, Flemish Eye
Braids Facebook
Audio Stream
LYRICS: We are so near / Yet so alone / Sitting next to each other looking at our phones / See the screen light my face in this darkened place / Do you think it makes me look pretty when I soften all my lines away / When I make myself look as far away from real / Breasts pushed up I’m trying to show you / I have collar bones & cleavage you can rest in / This pics lookin’ better than the real / So when my clothes are off and we’re together / I probably won’t look this way again / And I wonder will you still want me then / Will you still want me when / You catch the frowning of my brow and see how my breasts move around / Breasts move around / Breasts move around / Move up and down / Move up and down / Breasts pushed up / I’m trying to show you I have collar bones / Walk with me hand in hand / What the hell is going on ? / We’re here to feel something more / But we’re just hurdling towards / Seeing and feeling nothing / Nothing more than an impulse / To move onto the next thing / And forget the last / Get hold of a new friend / That you’ve never even met / Can I be your new friend ? / I hope I never meet you / Just stay as a number / Help make me feel better / About the craziness that is / This life / Breasts pushed up / I’m trying to show I have collarbones.
Burdock & Dandelion
Braids (CAN)
From the digital single, Collarbones/Burdock & Dandelion’, Flemish Eye
Braids Official
Audio Stream
LYRICS: Oops I’m feeling lost again / Guess I’ll wander round the drug store / Till I forget that I feel conflicted / Till I feel calmed / Cause everything around me is moving faster / Than we ever expected / I’ve got a weapon in my pocket / That I’m lifting to my face 90 times a day / I heard I could fix my pain with flower tinctures / Burdock and dandelion, flower tinctures / I heard I could fix my pain with a box hair dye, the red highlight kind / My pain is I’m getting older / And I try not to mind, I really try not to mind / The boy I want is supported by his parents / Doesn’t have the nerve to text me back after a fuck / But has the nerve to ask me if I like my breasts / Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t / But I lied to him and told him that I loved them / And then I died a little inside / I felt the problem was with me / But the problem was with him / What if I asked, do you like your cock ? / Oh gods, I want to feel so beautiful in my skin / And oh gods, I want to find someone to celebrate my state with / And oh gods, will I ever find that one ? / Oh gods, I want to feel so beautiful in my skin / And oh gods, I want to find someone to celebrate my state with / And oh gods, why the hell do we all need someone, want someone ? / Do you ?
Braids Tour Dates
TOUR DATES
05/03 – Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa
05/04 – Winooski, VT – Waking Windows
05/06 – Cambridge, MA – Middle East
05/08 – Washington, DC – Songbyrd
05/09 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
05/11 – New York, NY – Zone One @ Elsewhere
05/12 – Annandale-on-Hudson, NY – Smog