The Fruit Bats- The Ruminant Band
Mon 31 Aug 2009
The Fruit Bats- The Ruminant Band
7/10
Between The Fruit Bats’ last album Spelled In Bones (2005) and the band’s new album The Ruminant Band, songwriter Eric Johnson spent time playing with his friends in Vetiver and The Shins. Time has been worthy for The Fruit Bats, they now have five members and for the first time come across as a unified property. Johnson’s songs are bought to life, capturing mid-western energy and southern pride the songs have a cutesy pop twang that sparkle in the metropolitan shadows. Spiralling between acoustic folk, electric blue-grass, country-esque twee and jangly pop numbers, the band swims confidently, breezing through a number of genres turning heads and hearts. Johnson’s ability to sound like John Lennon (post-Beatles) one moment and Paul McCartney (Think ’70s Wings) the next, coupled with the bands channelling of The Beatles’ pop, Allman Brothers’ hippy crop-rock and Yeasayer’s wallowing firecracker country makes for an entertaining night around the camp fire. Title track ‘The Ruminant Band’ is a fine example of The Fruit Bats’ new five-piece structure, deeply rooted in twang and twee the song has a sense of travel and adventure. ‘Tegucigalpa’ sounds a lot like Hamilton’s Dynamo Go, with Johnson’s voice providing a strong focus for the songs simple country-pop riffs to gather momentum, while ‘Beautiful Morning Light’ is a gentle folk ballad that Fleet Foxes fans will cherish despite tiring slightly in length. There’s the odd, slightly less inquisitive tracks like ‘The Hibo Girl’, which fails at Barbara-ann type chatter and ‘Being On Our Own’, a wet attempt at a Beatles-esque Abbey Road song. ‘The Blessed Breeze’ is a late highlight; an upbeat track of perfectly timed twee hooks and catchy lyrics, it has mix-tape single written all over. With only a slight lapse in brilliance, The Fruit Bats’ fourth album is a bright collage of musical stains that will be very hard to remove from your memory, despite failing to deliver a clear radio hit.
Nick
Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews
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