Braids has always been intense. After all, this is the band that constructed an eight-minute epic around the words, “I’m fucked up.” But the Braids of Deep In The Iris are marked by an emotional directness that was previously only occasionally bubbled to the surface. “Miniskirt” was the pinnacle of that — and you can read some great writing on that knockout track here and here — but “Taste” is a worthy followup, retreating back into the sprightly fantastical world they’ve spent two albums building, while keeping their newfound level of real world applicability. “We experience the love that we think we deserve,” Raphaelle Standell sings with the rushed urgency of a ’90s pop song. And later: “We can’t explain why we hurt the ones we love most of all,” followed by the album’s quasi-mission statement: “Deep in the iris, you see a place of hope.” I’m not so sure I’d describe this song as hopeful, but it sure does provide a lot of comfort. Listen below.

Deep In The Iris is out 4/28 via Arbutus Records.