
Album Review - Braid, 'No Coast'
Braid
No Coast
Topshelf
“I don’t want to have to defend my medicine,” sings Bob Nanna on “Light Crisis,” which appears on the first full-length Braid album in 16 years. It’s a rattling but familiar taste of emo that hasn’t gotten stale. Just in time for the revival of the genre that the Midwest outfit had a hand in popularizing, No Coast delivers 12 timeless tracks. It’s a reunion record that doesn’t reek of a money grab.
The helix guitars and vocals of Nanna and Chris Broach are the glue that holds the Coast together. With the former’s buttery vox and the latter’s more nasal, Tom DeLonge-like approach, they’re a complementary yin and yang not bruised by time. The harmonics-driven “Damages!” bobs and weaves like Jimmy Eat World in a pillow fight with Piebald. And the title track sees the bros trading lines like “You’re the most elusive, most incredible/You’re the only thing that’s beautiful that no one understands.” They haven’t lost their maudlin, young-chap mentality.
Kudos to Braid’s solid rhythm section, too. Drummer Damon Atkinson and bassist Todd Bell stake the tent poles in these 12 blustery songs that might float away without their guidance. That’s half the fun of No Coast, though— just following the labyrinth this legendary emo band leads us down. Maybe the whippersnappers of the scene ought to leave it to Nanna and Broach to show ‘em how it’s done. Because they’ve really outdone themselves here with such a phenomenal comeback.
More from Melissa Bobbitt (See All)
Concert review - BNLX
Melissa Bobbitt 0Married musical pair Ed and Ashley Ackerson got each other's backs at the BNLX concert at the Echo in Los Angeles on June 10th. British New Wave has a new home: Minneapolis. Its champions...
Jun 17, 2013Concert Review - 'Weird Al' Yankovic at the Hollywood Bowl, July 23 2016
Melissa Bobbitt 0The prim woman folding her arms and scoffing in the box seat apparently didn’t get the memo that the theme of the performance was Mandatory Fun. Outraged by a barf joke – tame by comparison...
Jul 25, 2016Comments
Recent posts
Subscribe!
Receive updates on what's going on in live entertainment, events, and music.