20 Albums of the Year: Number 19- Braids "Native Speaker"

The thing opens up and you want to hate it. It's so expansive, so expressive, so there that you want to reject it. Who are these kids trying to be? Animal Collective? And you can't blame yourself for shrugging it off. After all, the record opens as "Peacebone's" slightly stable twin. But then the fog comes in. Have you fucked the stray kids yet it calls, we are all just sleeping around it confirms. Your mind is reeling. She claims to only want to love but she keeps hitting you with jabs. Wasn't tribal music so last year? You're grasping for straws. "Plath Heart" should be playing at some Urban Outfitters if things were done right around here. Nice try; you are drowning in the kids pool. It's so above you but it's so childish and so immediate. But then a strange thing happens. You're in a Starbucks or on the train and she starts killing, and I mean killing, the title track and it all makes sense. All is right. You sip your coffee and slightly feel better about letting yourself go. Breathe and exhale with the record.