Artist of The Day: Bahamas

For a while I really wasn't comfortable admitting my love for all things Jack Johnson: he was liked by far too many boy band loving 12-year-old soon to be Twilight obsessed pre-teen girls, he seemed to be to carefree to ever create an album of lasting importance, he sounded nothing like the other music I was listening to in 2005 and 2006, and if I went around touting his brilliant performance on the Curious George soundtrack my peers probably would not stop questioning my sexuality anytime soon.  But despite all the disadvantages to enjoying Johnson's music it was almost impossible not to enjoy his down to earth, atmospheric, free flowing, catchy, and almost all acoustic songs he did in the early 2000's.  In retrospect, I wish I would have admitted my love for Johnson, ate some banana pancakes, and enjoyed the beach everyone of his early songs took me to.

But now that Johnson's career has seemingly faded into an ocean of mediocrity, I find myself looking for a guilt free, catchy, atmospheric, and mostly acoustic replacement that could be on the same wavelength of Johnson's early 2000's work.  Although I was looking for someone who could just come close to replicating the feel of Johnson's early works, I think I found something better when I started listening to the Bahamas.  The Bahamas plays Johnson's acoustic and beachy feel with a more fulfilling and full sound: they combine 1960's rock, hard rock, folk, and country sounds in just about every song.   On their latest release Barchords alone they have crafted a perfect folk song ("Lost in The Light,") a flawless country rock song ("I Got You Babe,") a beautiful Johnson esque acoustic ballad ("Time and Time Again,") a song that almost sounds like a cover of a classic rock hit ("Never Again,") and one of the best songs in 2012 in "Montreal."

It would be easy to describe Bahamas as a guilt-free rehashing of Jack Johnson's most catchy and successful tunes, but Bahamas presents us a much more classic and full sound that makes Barchords sound like a carefree rehashing of just about anything you want it to be a rehashing of.  That not only should lead you to believe that Barchords is one of the more complete albums of 2012, but should make you quite the "Curious George" about the rest of the work in Bahamas catalog.

Bahamas Website