Bahamas: Barchords [BRUSHFIRE]

Why you'll love it

This Brushfire Records LP carries the 12-song album as it first came out. Barchords earned Bahamas a Juno nomination for Adult Alternative Album of the Year, and Feist joins him on "Snow Plow."

This edition

• Original 12-track album
• Brushfire Records edition, 2012

About the album

Some guitar players make you notice them; Afie Jurvanen makes you notice the space between the notes. After years as a sideman, the Toronto musician went out under the name Bahamas, and his 2009 debut Pink Strat introduced a guy who could make a single bent string sound like a sigh of relief.

Barchords, produced by Robbie Lackritz, warms that sound up. Jurvanen wrote every song, and they're built on unhurried grooves, close harmonies and that famously relaxed tone. "Lost in the Light" opens with a slow-burning glow, "Caught Me Thinkin'" has a sweet, swaying hook, "Montreal" tips its hat to another Canadian city, and "Okay Alright I'm Alive" bounces. Feist, an old friend and bandmate, adds her voice to the wintry "Snow Plow," and "Be My Witness" closes things on a tender note. "I Got You Babe" (his own song, not the Sonny & Cher one) and "Your Sweet Touch" keep the mood soft and close.

It came out in February 2012, the perfect month for an album this cozy. Put it on after shovelling the driveway; it's the closest thing to a heated seat that comes in a record sleeve.

Also at Kops: more Bahamas on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Brushfire / Republic, a reissue of the 2012 album.