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. “In 2022, we found ourselves at a breaking point,” says Brad Barr, the band’s guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter. “It was clear something had to change. The real story of this record is the story of that change and everything that came after.”
“'Let it Hiss' is what happened when we stopped pretending everything was fine and finally listened to what was actually going on”, says Andrew.
The album opens in miniature: a tiny Mexican guitar, the soft pulse of piano, a bare rhythm, and a voice that offers both surrender and strength. "Take it from me,” Brad sings - not as command, but confession. From this first moment, the album invites you into a space where the flaws aren’t edited out - they’re amplified, celebrated. It’s a powerful introduction to a record rooted in honesty, rediscovery, and trust.
For the brothers, recording became a mirror. The process didn’t begin with sound - it began with truth. They confronted not just creative blocks, but personal ones. Old patterns. Unspoken tensions. Grief. Growth. Through it all, they found a rhythm again - not in precision, but in permission.
Brad and Andrew have been playing music together since they were kids, first in the shape-shifting rock outfit The Slip, and then as The Barr Brothers, blending American roots music, and experimental textures into something uniquely their own. Their reputation for intricate musicianship and emotional depth has earned them fans across the world—and praise from musical giants.
The title itself is an ethos. “It just felt right,” Andrew says. “To leave the hiss in. The discomfort, the imperfection, the struggle. We stopped trying to clean it all up. That’s when the music started to breathe again. To be fun”.
Certainly, '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.
There’s a timeless quality to the songwriting on Let it Hiss - evident on songs like 'Naturally', a quiet nod to the era of classic craftsmen, where melody and message were inseparable. It’s music that trusts the listener, unfolding gradually, with arrangements that balance restraint and ambition in equal measure. Perhaps at the center of it all is 'Owning Up to Everyone', a track that captures the spirit of the album in miniature. “That one cracked something open,” says Andrew. “It felt like a way through.”
But all the freewheeling musical exploration and emotional upheaval that plays out over the course of 'Let it Hiss' still won’t prepare for the album’s closer 'Upsetter', a blast of sweat-soaked, punk-powered rock ‘n ’soul capped by an absolutely lobotomizing guitar solo. Quite simply, it’s the most berserker track the Barrs have ever committed to tape, pushing the 'Let it Hiss' philosophy so far into the red, it practically breaks the VU meter. “This was one where I thought, ‘well, there's no way this is going to make the record, ’because maybe it feels out of the blue for a lot of our listeners,” Brad reveals. “But I think our listeners will appreciate us just being who we are - and who we are includes stuff like this.”
Brad and Andrew produced 'Let it Hiss' themselves, working primarily as a duo out of their Montreal studio. To bring the album’s rawness and intricacy into focus, the band turned to mix engineer Jon Low (The National, Taylor Swift, Bon Iver). They called on trusted friends from their wider musical community to lend voices, instruments, and textures when the songs called for it—collaborations that felt less like features and more like natural extensions of the music. Many of these relationships were built over years of shared stages, late-night sessions, and a mutual commitment to the craft. In this way, Let it Hiss stands as both their most personal and most collaborative record to date.
'Let it Hiss' doesn’t resolve so much as reveal. It invites listeners to lean in - to the hiss, the weight, the wonder. As the Barr Brothers move forward, one thing is clear: they’ve found each other again and in doing so they found their way back to the music.
And the rest is hisstory.
TRACK LISTING
1. Take It From Me
2. Let It Hiss
3. English Harbour
4. Run Right Into It
5. Moonbeam
6. She Doesn't Sleep With The Covers On
7. Naturally
8. Owning Up To Everyone
9. Another Tangerine
10. Upsetter
