I first discovered Montreal’s Braids in 2011 with the single their album Native Speaker. And instantly, it felt like a revelation. They combined the experimental composition and lush atmospheres of bands like Tortoise, Radiohead, and Deerhunter with a pop sensibility that wouldn’t be out of place on a Top 40 station. It moments that were entirely and delightfully bizarre, but that weirdness was married to a delightful popcraft.

I devoured it. I played that record constantly and relished all the new Braids I could get—even tracking down a digital copy of their first EP, which seems to have been scrubbed from existence. I followed them through their next few records and was always captivated with how they continued to mix their more ambitious experimental side with their hook-filled songwriting without sounding like they were retreading old ground.

Euphoric Recall, their fifth record, is another brilliant step forward for the band, offering their trademark sound without sounding derivative of their old work.

From the opening moments of “Supernova,” Braids reminds me why I fell in love with them in the first place. The opener is an eight-minute art pop masterpiece, implementing mercurial electronics and acoustic instruments over a loping drum machine while Raphaelle Standell-Preston flits between melody lines like a sound collage. I don’t want to use the word “chaotic,” but I can’t think of a better descriptor. It’s a controlled chaos though, and Braids never lets the ideas spinning in the ether carry them out of control. “Mischievous” might be the word.

Whatever word you want to use for it, it runs through Euphoric Recall’s entire runtime, all while maintaining relaxed tempos and masterful atmospheres. The mood shifts subtly, as if their music is a jewel that they are examining from all angles. Ambient pads morph into cascading synth lines, turning a pensive ballad into a dance jam. Perhaps the finest example of their shapeshifting ability is in the nine-and-a-half-minute “Retriever,” which starts off riding a glitching keyboard line and crispy drum machine before blossoming into an array of strings, ambient guitar, and drum set. Halfway through, a heavily syncopated drum hit wrestles the rhythm away from the drum machine before giving way to a lone keyboard melody that repeats into the closing title track, morphing in timbre and staying true despite the discordant elements that try to interrupt it.

While there’s certainly plenty of new ground trekked by Braids here, Euphoric Recall feels like as definitive a statement as they’ve ever made, taking the best lessons from each entry in their back catalog while still forging ahead.

Euphoric Recall is out April 28 through Secret City Records.

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