Brace for the Bloom is the new album from the St. Paul band Dragons Power Up! The recording is a dense, hook-heavy guitar rock album with a strong focus on arrangement and lyrical narrative. Lyrically and sonically, the common thread is 'transition' - possibly transition still in process. Nearly every song deals with making sense of change - relationships (House Fires, Where Do You Go, My Hands Are Strong), nature (Orbit Dance, Ballahol), perspective (Worm and Plow, Filter Valve) and aging (Nickels). The lyrics also shift in narrator and tone, and range from linear narrative (Hands) to obscure (Filter Valve). During the recording of the album the band found themselves building beyond the basic lineup of the 4 members with the additional instrumentation provided by friends and fellow musicians John Vance and Melanie Bergstrom (Wizards Are Real) on saxophone, Renee Klitzke on cello (Me and My Arrow), Brian O'Neil on pedal steel (Wizards Are Real), and Katie Grillaert on backing vocals (White Sands\u002FBad Lands).