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Apr 26, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Mélissa Gamache

Montreal experimental pop trio Braids are releasing a new album, Euphoric Recall, this Friday via Secret City. Now they have shared the album’s fourth single, “Lucky Star,” via a music video. Watch it below.

Braids features Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Austin Tufts, and Taylor Smith.

“‘Lucky Star’ came together in pieces over a long span of time,” says singer/guitarist Standell-Preston in a press release. “Its inception began on a very cold winter night after having taken some months from writing…it’s not the easiest to write music during Montreal’s unforgiving winter. We sat down in our studio, with the space heater on high, and plugged the mic in and turned the speakers on. Taylor showed me a beautiful synth loop he had been working on, the lyrics and melody poured out of me quickly, it was one of those first take moments, as are most of the takes on Euphoric Recall. I put the mic down and asked Taylor to close the project, I didn’t want to listen back. We packed up, satisfied that we had put something down on the page and walked through the snow back to our homes. When spring came we opened up the project again. The winter blues had come and gone, and Montreal was feeling electric with having survived another winter. ‘Lucky Star’ started in the dark and ended in the light. It reminds me of all the different moments we move through as individuals. Nothing is ever linear.”

Last August, the band shared the album’s first single, “Retriever,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Then when the album was announced in January, they shared its second single, “Evolution,” via a music video. “Evolution” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared the album’s third single, “Apple,” via a music video. “Apple” was also one of our Songs of the Week.

A previous press release described the new album in greater detail: “A freer and wholly anew effort, their fifth studio album finds the trio abandoning strategy, burning it down, and realizing their love record. Love, all of it; the unbound bliss, the budding impulses, and the messy imperfections, a supernova swirled up in a suite of bold, melodic, symphonic pop songs surrendered to the present.”

Standell-Preston added: “How you cultivate your heart space is extremely important to the outcome of what you are pursuing. I think that when we are operating from a place of safety and feeling loved and have intentions of loving, we can access really interesting places.”

The band wrote, recorded, self-produced, and mixed Euphoric Recall at Studio Toute Garnie, their Montréal studio.

The band’s last album, Shadow Offering, came out in 2020 on Secret City and made it to #24 on our Top 100 Albums of 2020 list.

Read our Self-Portrait interview with the band.

Check out the digital version of Issue 71 for our The End interview with the band.

Euphoric Recall String Ensemble Performance Series:

05/27 - Los Angeles, CA @ Knitting Factory NoHo
05/30 - Toronto, ON @ Paradise Theatre
06/01 - Ottawa, ON @ Club SAW
06/02 - Montreal QC @ Society for Arts & Technology
06/04 - New York, NY @ Racket
06/10 - London, UK @ Kings Place Hall One

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