Let it Hiss

First album in 8 years from The Barr Brothers.

It’s been eight years since Montreal’s The Barr Brothers released a full-length album. In that time, life pulled them in new directions - personally and professionally - altering the way they make music together. Their fourth studio album, Let it Hiss, isn’t just a new collection of songs. It’s a document of transformation. The making of this record marked a pivotal shift: a pause for reflection, a reckoning with vulnerability, and a reconnection between the two brothers who’ve spent over three decades making music side by side.

Let it Hiss foregrounds a sense of joyous abandon that wasn’t as perceptible on previous Barr Brothers records - you can hear it in the open-road anthem “Run Right Into It” (featuring Land of Talk’s Elizabeth Powell) and the playful garage-band reggae of “She Doesn’t Sleep With the Covers On.” But Let it Hiss doesn’t completely abandon the intimate storytelling on which the Barrs’ brand was built: “English Harbour” is a gorgeous folk hymn illuminated by harmonies from former tour mate Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and “Moonbeam” is a lush, string-swept soul serenade given an extra touch of class by a Francophone guest vocal from Quebecois art-pop shapeshifter Klô Pelgag.