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This April, Frame & Canvas turns 20 years old. I am both proud and thankful that Braid took a chance on two kids from Danville, Illinois who had a less-than-two-year-old record label and trusted us to put it into the world.

Watching this album become a classic over the past twenty years has been inspiring and humbling and I'm doubtful that we'd be here today without it.

-Matt Lunsford, Polyvinyl Co-Founder

Considered by many to be the definitive Braid album, Frame & Canvas was recorded by J. Robbins (Jawbox/Burning Airlines) at Inner Ear studios in December 1997. Braid's leaner, more focused sound on the album was in direct correlation to the band's constant and prolific touring.

Braid's third album features the bombastic crowd pleaser "The New Nathan Detroits," the lovesick mathrock dance anthem "A Dozen Roses" and the shimmery mini-epic of "I Keep a Diary."

Songs

1

The New Nathan Detroits (4:17)
2

Killing A Camera (2:33)
3

Never Will Come For Us (3:31)
4

First Day Back (3:22)
5

Collect From Clark Kent (3:25)
6

Milwaukee Sky Rocket (3:12)
7

A Dozen Roses (4:15)
8

Urbana's Too Dark (3:25)
9

Consolation Prizefighter (3:13)
10

Ariel (2:37)
11

Breathe In (2:15)
12

I Keep A Diary (5:46)

Reviews

"Frame & Canvas looked unassuming on its face, but the record showed the most marked evolution of what emo would become just a few years later. Where Braid started out as a louder, more hardcore-fueled band, Frame & Canvas put a premium on hooks, with nearly every song starting with austere, off-time riffs that dovetailed into a full-on sing-along."
Noisey

"The band's propensity for wearing its heart on its sleeve, however, is what makes Frame & Canvas so compelling."
Rolling Stone, 40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time

"Another high watermark of early ’90s emo, cult Illionois act Braid took 16 years to follow up this sparkling third album, but ‘Frame and Canvas’ is untouchable: a scuzzy, gently mathy tale of burning heartbreak."
NME

Any “greatest emo albums ever” list worth a shit will probably include Frame & Canvas in its top 10."
Stereogum

"The sound of Frame & Canvas had become so foundational it was hard to find a band that didn’t have a bit of Braid in them."
Noisey

"The real knock-out punch, however, comes from Braid’s grown-up sense of harmony and their jaw-dropping songwriting skills. Every lyric transmits Ernest Hemingway-like romanticism; every jagged chord or meter change serves its song perfectly."
Alternative Press

"These 12 songs positively reaffirm Braid's prowess as precise musicians and ace songwriters...the album has that rare ability to nurse wounds as well as to inflict them."
CMJ

"Frame & Canvas proves to be one of Braid's best efforts -- by the end of the first song, "The New Nathan Detroits," you know you will be humming these melodies in your head for at least the next few days. The album continues to mature throughout, providing a sense of heartbreak and sentimentality on amazing tracks like "A Dozen Roses" and "Breathe In.""
All Music

"Frame and Canvas is a record that's too good to be described merely with a genre stamp. Braid here become more than another scene band. They become the scene band. Everyone else will now have to deal with being compared to them. The guitars and impassioned vocals of Frame and Canvas sound from the beginning like indie DNA."
Nude As The News