REVIEWSBraids, ‘Native Speaker’

8

• SPIN Rating:8 of 10

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Release Date: January 18, 2011
Label: Kanine

It's fitting that burbling -- either of a brook or of a bong -- opens this Canadian quartet's debut, which pairs glimmering, pastoral post-rock with foul-mouthed lyrics chirped unfiltered from the psyche of singer Katie Lee. "Glass Deers," for example, weaves a gossamer fabric of waterfalling pianos and lullaby guitar lines for eight minutes while she coos about thigh-slapping and elongates the syllables "I'm fucked up" into a sing-along trill. Lee's take on the feminine id is like the music itself: smooth on the outside, savage within.