Fruit Bats, “The Glory of Fruit Bats”
Available: Friday, Nov. 25 via Easy Sound Recording Co. in very limited quantities on vinyl (with a redeemable digital download) at your local independent record store, for Record Store Day: Black Friday.
This past May, Eric D. Johnson surprised his utterly devout throng of fans by dusting off the Fruit Bats moniker for the first time in five years to release “Absolute Loser.” His latest proper Fruit Bats album since “Tripper” (which was his last of four Sub Pop releases), “Absolute Loser” is a fantastic record that will rightly be on (or atop) many a critics’ Best of 2016 list, mine included.
[Record Store Day: Black Friday is an attempt to corral the post-Thanksgiving, pick-your-favorite-secular-holiday shopper to encourage what you all should be doing anyway and that is SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL, INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE(!). Record labels and bands offer special releases and reissues to entice you into spending your money at the mom-and-pop shop on the kickoff to holiday shopping (fork-in-my-eye). It just so happens that Durango has a kickass independent record store for you to peruse, and if you’re reading this online, I hope your town has one or two indie retailers for you to visit as well.]
So, the Fruit Bats’ latest label, Easy Sound Recording Co., is getting in on the RSD: Black Friday fun by releasing a wonderful addendum to “Absolute Loser.” When considering this latest set of recordings, it’s by no means thrown together, but rather a well-articulated gift to fans of his music. According to Johnson’s camp, “The Glory of Fruit Bats” is “a totally new collection of originals sprinkled with a few cover songs … performed, produced, engineered and mixed by Johnson in Portland, Oregon, over the course of one week, the record is the latest installment in Fruit Bats’ vast catalog of lost folk hits and existential make-out music.”
Recommended for those that lean toward indie-tinged folk and Americana, such as Fleet Foxes, Kevin Morby, Blitzen Trapper, Ugly Casanova, Dawes or Middle Brother.
Jon E. Lynch[email protected]
