Bahamas

A gifted guitarist and musician who's bolstered the work of Feist, Hayden and Jason Collett, Afie Jurvanen steps back into the spotlight with Bahamas, a great outlet for the songs he's recorded for graceful debut Pink Strat. Cut from the same cloth as Al Tuck or Peter Elkas, Bahamas is a sleepy, soulful project for an artist with great instincts and the will to execute deceptively simple music with knowing taste. Though the instrumentation is often understated, songs like "Hockey Teeth" reveal a classic sensibility whose wooing charms become more apparent with subsequent listens. The acoustic finger-style and slide guitar employed on "For Good Reason" push the song out of the ordinary, while a great pop heart beats loudly within the sparse, heartbroken "What's Worse?" Five years in the making, Pink Strat finds Bahamas in a pleasant yet emergent state with a promising future ahead.