I'm an idiot for not getting on the Fruit Bats program earlier this summer. Just an idiot. Gold Past Life, out now via Merge Records, is a superb record. And it's one that confirms the skills of Eric D. Johnson at crafting pop every bit as big and tuneful as anything you remember hearing on AM radio in the Seventies.
Opener "The Bottom of It" is all-George Harrison-gone-"Crackerbox Palace", with flashes of Lindsey Buckingham thrown into the mix for good measure, while "Your Dead Grandfather" is the sort of thing that recalls solo John Lennon, circa Walls and Bridges. Johnson, guitarist for The Shins, has a real knack for this kind of thing, such that his particular take on power-pop feels entirely fresh, and in debt to the solo Beatles, and Paul Simon, and Fleetwood Mac, in ways we haven't heard too many times before; it's power-pop that reigns supreme here on Gold Past Life, but a brand decidedly looser than the kind that's just a bunch of crunchy chords, as per the usual. "Dream Would Breathe", for instance, is folk-y but also spry, the kind of thing that bears the faintest resemblance to the ornate pop of Rufus Wainwright or any number of things Jon Brion's touched. Johnson, wisely, keeps things as light as air all throughout Gold Past Life, with even the title cut coasting by on the strength of the white-boy funk within its grooves. Far better than that one is "Drawn Away", a composition that has all the yearning of a number from Van Morrison and all the guitar-based hooks of any number of Paul Simon singles from the Nixon years.
Fruit Bats are doing this sort of thing exactly the way it should be done. In some other hands -- now paging Vampire Weekend! -- the mostly same set of influences results in music that's insufferable and annoying. In Eric D. Johnson's hands, and with help from players like Greta Morgan (Springtime Carnivore), those same points of inspiration have resulted in tunes that are summery and easy to love. Never once belaboring anything charming, and never once being too clever or cute for his own good, Johnson wisely keeps things bopping along on Gold Past Life. And for that reason, I have to offer up a rave for this record, even as I regret not hearing this one even earlier.
Gold Past Life is out now via Merge Records.
More details on Fruit Bats via the band's official website, or the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Annie Beedy]