Flourish // Perish

Braids are a Montreal-based experimental pop act, and for their second full-length LP (also their first without founding member/keyboardist Katie Lee), the group have largely shed the dreamy meanderings that characterised their debut in favour of more formal song structures. Such a decision seems to have stemmed from the band’s increased fascination with – and incorporation of – electronic music, and artists including Aphex Twin and Autechre have been cited as major influences for the making of Flourish // Perish.

As a result, the album bears more in common with the excellent Untogether: the side-project of lead-vocalist Raphaelle Standell-Preston, which was released earlier this year under the Blue Hawaii moniker. This particular release made for some intriguingly challenging electro-pop; its plethora of chopped, processed beats and melodies having to almost be constantly deciphered and uncovered by the listener. So, in some respects, the more straightforward approach of Flourish // Perish deviates from aspects that formed a significant part of Native Speaker and Untogether’s respective intrigue.

On the whole, however, Flourish // Perish explores the themes which epitomised Untogether – separation, isolation and dislocation – with greater clarity and breadth. Tracks such as the breath-taking ‘Girl’ see Standell-Preston utilise her voice to a degree which is striking in its subtlety, while those like the delightful ‘Hossack’ betray a growing confidence in the band’s ability to deliver intricate, interesting patterns and textures. Perhaps the best thing here is stunning centrepiece ‘Together’, which sees Standell-Preston’s sombre reflections slowly surrounded (and eventually swallowed) by jarring waves of yearning, late-night neon synth. Where Untogether sometimes felt cluttered, the electronic experiments of Flourish // Perish are imbued with larger degrees of spaciousness: an aesthetic which – when accompanied by proclamations such as “What are we all living for? / What am I living for?” – reveals Braids at their most desolate.

The electronic experiments of Flourish // Perish are imbued with large degrees of spaciousness: an aesthetic which reveals Braids at their most desolate.

Fittingly, on the “Perish” side of the record, Braids’ explorations come across as more introverted, and, subsequently, things occasionally begin to lull. Yet somehow, such languor does accentuate the rejuvenating qualities of the album’s final moments. Being the only track to feature guitar, ‘In Kind’ demonstrates a playfulness that harks back to Native Speaker, and in some sense, it goes a way to recapture the innocence which the bulk of Flourish // Perish apparently mourns: “Well I must have saw a girl who looked like myself / White-cheeked and bleak, knowing all the answers”. Whether signifying resignation or resolution, this newfound vivacity demonstrates the payoff of allowing a semi-veiled pop sensibility the room to thrive at last.

Similar To: Blue Hawaii, Baths

MP3: ‘Girl’, ‘Together’, ‘In Kind’