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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Fruit Bats' Echolocation (Perishable, 2000) was the creature of
singer and guitarist Eric Johnson (based in Chicago).
The album features everything from piano to banjo, from marimba to clarinet,
from mandolin to pedal steel, from ukulele to crickets...
The arsenal is a little wasted, as
Johnson plays mainly lazy, laid-back campfire ballads steeped in the rural
tradition, from the plaintive opener, The Old Black Hole, to the
Dylan-ian dirges Need It Just A Little and Filthy Water, to
the charming Blue Parachute.
His melodic talent transpires from Glass In Your Feet,
a sublime barbershop aria that Johnson yodels
to the strumming of ukulele and banjo, from the merry refrain
of Buffalo & Deer, set to a pow-wow beat, and from the
sprightly country rigmarole of A Dodo Egg.
His genius for arrangements is largely invisible, as the prettiest
orchestrations last only one or two minutes.
Johnson has the means to become a unique voice, but has to realize that his
main assett is not the singing, it's the orchestrating.
Mouthfuls (Subpop, 2003) delivers another batch of acoustic gems in this
hunble, understated, soulful vein.
Rainbow Sign lingers with sunny guitar strumming, tender piano tinkling
and ecstatic backing vocals.
Echoes of Everly Brothers' lullabies
surface in Magic Hour, amid hushed organ, weeping guitars, tambourines,
mandolins, etc.
Johnson's delivery and arrangements can easily veer into more experimental
territory.
The lazy and ethereal Track Rabbits is not even sung, just hummed,
bordering on David Crosby's psychedelic trips.
The dreamy mantra of Slipping Through The Sensors has a similar
otherwordly quality.
Given the amount of pensiveness and impressionism, Johnson is masterful in
avoiding to be cornered in the "depressed and languid" category with the likes
of Nick Drake. And thus
A Bit Of Wind adds more rhythm, spunkier vocals,
bluesy guitar counterpoint and even a solemn horn fanfare.
Union Blanket weds a catchy litany with swamp beat, African syncopation
and electronic sounds, evoking the vision of a futuristic jug band.
The most upbeat number, When U Love Somebody, is a novelty full
of stops and gags, rollicking at a feverish rhythm.
Spelled In Bones (Sub Pop, 2005) is a rather uneventful collection
of trivial pop tunes, as groundbreaking as a MacDonald's hamburger.
The piano ballad TV Waves, Traveler Song and the Shins-ian
Legs of Bees
are passable, but the rest is pure filler. This should have been a single,
not an album.
A less pastoral mood permeates Ruminant Band (2009), with
Primitive Man and The Hobo Girl hinting at a harder, rowdier
saloon sound, and Ruminant Band venturing into jangling folk-rock.
Johnson joined the Shins in 2009 and the
Fruit Bats project further deteriorated.
Their
Tripper (2011) sounds like a studio product that wasn't given enough
care and attention. While there are songs that could have been interesting
(You're Too Weird, the ambitious The Banishment Song),
they lack passion and heart.
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