Weird in Our Own Ways
Fruit Bats is a one-man band overseen by Eric D. Johnson. I've loved everything he/they have done since 2003 or so (including his side-band Bonnie Light Horseman), when I first discovered Echolocation , the debut album. All the way through those 20+ years, Fruit Bats has been a touchstone for me, but Pet Parade , an album that came out a couple years back, is what I go to just about anytime I need music now. It's lush country-drag pop, delicate but also full of denim-flavored 70s Fleetwood Mac greatness. His voice is Supertramp merged with Glen Campbell, and the music has a synthesized ominousness and sense of fun, a hominess too. It's singer-song-writery but also contemplative beyond that, moving into this weird poetic direct-connect to my soul. Every dang song on this thing is blissful and halfway awkwardly stupid in the way it needs to be, feelings bleeding out of every chorus and every note, with melodies laced with losses and happine...