Essentially a vehicle for Eric D. Johnson, a sometime member of The Shins, Fruit Bats deliver their first album for Merge Records with a fizzy, at times sugary, flourish. The 11 songs here are bathed in a nostalgic wash with Johnson inhabiting the summery breezes of those classic songwriters who delivered their wares in highly structured units. Thus, there are whiffs of Todd Rundgren, Brian Wilson, Harry Nilsson and even the brothers Gibb secreted within the globs of synthesised pop laid down here although they are leavened with some cosmic country pedal steel stylings. Continue reading “Fruit Bats “Gold Past Life” (Merge Records, 2019)”
Tag: Fruit Bats
Fruit Bats sign to Merge for new album – Listen
There are few bands named after an animal/bird who are actually better than the animal/bird themselves (Owl City anyone?) but Fruit Bats are one such band, and they’ve just announced details of their new album ‘Gold Past Life’ which will be their debut full-length for Merge, due June 21st. You can hear the first single and album opener ‘The Bottom Of It’ below, which primary Fruit Bat Eric D. Johnson describes as “a song about simple victories, told a little bit through the notion of finding strange and fortuitous totems (round stones, turkey feathers, dead deer) and keeping them as trophies.” Continue reading “Fruit Bats sign to Merge for new album – Listen”