

A product of Canada’s thriving late-2000s indie scene, Braids manage to exist as both experimental outsiders and Juno Award-winning pop precisionists. Originally from Calgary, the band moved to Montreal in 2008, officially adopting the name Braids before dropping their 2011 debut, Native Speaker. That album’s lush art-rock reveries set the stage for grander visions—of ethereal electronic vignettes, woozy dream-pop portraits, and string-rich meditations. Over the years, Braids’ sound has remained effortlessly eclectic, shape-shifting to mirror vocalist Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s often brutally frank words, as heard on the 2015 Juno recipient Deep In the Iris. Her airy croons—a bewitching blend of Björk and something like a fallen angel—give weight to even the band’s most transcendent melodies.