Fruit Bats
Baby Man
Merge Records
Fruit Bats, aka Eric D. Johnson (Bonny Light Horseman, The Shins), releases his new album, Baby Man. Engineered, produced, and mixed by Thom Monahan, Baby Man follows on the heels of Fruit Bats’ 2023 album, A River Running to Your Heart.
Talking about Baby Man, Johnson says, “Right now this world is big and weird and horrible and yeah, sometimes even beautiful in short bursts. A loud place. But if you wanna take a quick moment and get eye-level with me, hear me whisper a dream in your ear, I got a new album that will do that.”
Performed entirely by Johnson, the long player is just his voice, guitar, piano, and a few subtle synth textures.
Of the 10 tracks on the album, highlights include the opening track, “Let You People Down,” featuring a mid-tempo, spare, indie-folk melody topped by Johnson’s evocative voice, vaguely reminiscent of John Lennon covering Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan.
A soft, elegant piano opens “Two Thousand Four,” as Johnson’s wistful, almost melancholic vocals imbue the lyrics with bluesy timbres. When his voice elevates to a high falsetto, the lyrics reveal a sense of surrender.
“Yeah, some find what they’re after / ’Cause sure; some know what they need / When it comes to figuring it all out / I’ve had enough.”
The gentle, tender title track finds Johnson musing on how life and people change over the course of time. What was once simple becomes complex, even odd.
“Still believed in God then / And I grieved for no one yet / Heart beating / Breathing nothin’ but clean air.”
On “Building A Cathedral,” a raw yet stylish song, Johnson strums his guitar while, like Solomon, he probes into an issue of great philosophical consequence: which idols do you worship? Or does pride blind you to what’s important and what’s vanity?
“You know I come from a country / Where the thunderclouds roll wide / Where the only hills are landfills / And the greatest sin is pride.”
“Year Of The Crow,” the final track and the most haunting of love songs, rolls out on blues-laced piano tones that drift slowly, and at times sparkle. A personal favorite, for some reason, Johnson’s voice summons memories of Leon Russell, a bit twangy and oh-so touching.
Rife with wonderfully expressive lyrics and Eric D. Johnson’s unique voice, Baby Man offers stripped-down-to-the-glorious-essentials songwriting.
