Customer Reviews

Mouthfuls

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Until recently there were three words (well, four) you could almost bet wouldn't be used in the same sentence: Sub Pop, folk and Florida. But around the end of 2002, these words started popping up in articles and reviews of Sub Pop releases, sometimes even in the same sentence. Fruit Bats are the latest addition to a growing line of like-minded, folksy artists on the Seattle label's roster.

Mouthfuls, produced by Brian Deck, is a stunning bit of psychedelic folk-rock. Driven by acoustic guitar and the vocal harmonies of Eric Johnson and Gillian Lisee, the Fruit Bats aesthetic -- with help from Deck, who provides "electronics" and "household objects" -- falls somewhere between the epic pop of The Shins and the backwater electronics of Holopaw.

On "The Little Acorn", the group references Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, both with the vocal arrangement and the lyric suggesting you "warm your bones", not "by the fire", as Pink Floyd would have it, but "in the northern snow". Like most songs on the album, rural allusions collide with the comparatively stiff sound of modern production.

While there are fits of gratuitous electronic noodling ("Union Blanket"), it's Johnson's keen sense of melody that carries the album. On the beautiful ballad, "Lazy Eye", he sings, "You are a diamond in the dirt", summing up in one line the confluence that becomes the de facto theme of the album: the juxtaposition of the natural and the produced, the organic and the electronic, a world where cars and riverbeds live side by side. Mouthfuls is essential for anyone currently enthralled by Sub Pop's bold and pastoral new directions.

Rob Young

I just read that Gillian Lisee has left the Fruit Bats, and that's a shame, since "Mouthfuls" was one of my favorite under the radar standouts from last year, carting in a load of farm fresh contemporary folk slightly flavored of psych pop. "Slipping Through the Sensors" was the first song that stole my heart. It begins with simple, sour plucking, almost ala some Americana, then Eric Johnson's vocals appear and the song goes on to feature some great harmonizing in front of a lumbering piano melody and some tambourines.

In the liner notes, thanks are given to the Fruit Bats label mates, you might have heard of them, THE SHINS, and you can hear their influence on this album at times; compare the opening of "Rainbow Sign" to Chutes Too Narrows "Young Pilgrims".

"A Bit of Wind", from whence the name of the album comes, is another highlight. Born from a vocal opening Brian Wilson would be proud of, it settles into strumming its little heart out while these strange stereophonic stingers go from ear to ear of the listener, and Eric peppers you with musings "It takes love by your thumbs, down in the abyss / the hidden messages / of things that you miss / it takes mouthfuls / of Niagra Falls").

I look forward to whatever release comes next from this band, though with the loss of a founding member I wonder what changes might be in store. Nevertheless, if you like psych, pop, or folk... this album should be on your shelf as one of the sleeper hits of 2003.

This album calls up images of nature and love. Love is not only a "circle in the snow," it is also a bloody tooth and indeed your hand on my knee. The lyrics are evocative, the instrumentation tasteful and the performances inspired. When Eric and Gillian sing together it is like the sweet sting of a green apple jolly rancher on your tongue...in the summer...under the big oak tree in your grandma's yard...riding in that old tire swing...with a sixty eight degree breeze blowing through your hair...yeah. Brian Deck's production work is percussively inspired as always and attentive to the psychedelic folk-rock nature of the music. If you like love and you love nature; if you believe love is both scary and exciting, possible and unimaginable, give this little gem a listen and if you're anything like me, you'll find it seems to get stuck in your player for hours, maybe even days on end.

"When you love somebody it's hard to think about anything but to breathe"

For me this album can best be described with the bridal tradition of "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue"

The album as a whole has an old familiar feel to it. At first listen, it's as if you've been listening to these songs for years tapping your toes and singing along. However...

It's something incredible and new, and with each listen, you recognize the beautiful subtlty that Eric Johnson uses weaving his own voice into these well crafted songs while...

borrowing from bands of the past that we all know and love. At times sounding as if he's pulling some old unheard Neil Young song out of the bins while at others effortlessly writing a song that even the Beatles would have wished they'd written.

Much of the album has a blue somber tone. His words are simple, and direct, and for me, as a man, describe the beautiful things about love and the world around us in only the way a man can.

Heartfelt yet quirky this album has touched me in a way few albums have with it's simple organic beauty. Eric Johnson is a songwriter that looks to the past for his inspiratin to move forward. It's nice to hear that people can still write these types of songs.

"Baby remember on the bus and my hand was on your knee
when you love somebody it's hard to think about anything but to breathe
baby I am the cold blues washed out in the flood
when you love somebody bite your tongue all you get is a mouth full of blood"

No one's reviewed this yet? This is, hands-down, the best album you'll hear this year. Each and every song is a perfect pop masterpiece. You'll hear echoes of Brian Wilson, the Beatles,Dylan, and maybe Pink Floyd, the Kinks, Big Star, Wilco, and every other great band along those lines. Mouthfuls is no exception the great, great albums Sub Pop has been putting out lately, including ones from bands like the Shins, the Baptist Generals,Ugly Casanova (featuring Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brook and Holowpaw's John Orth (Holopaw being another great band on Sub Pop that has more than a little in common with Fruit Bats). You're just going to have to take my word for it when I tell you that I'd be telling you this even if I didn't have a friend who works for Sub Pop.

Eric Johnson, who comprises one half of the band, writes all the songs, sings, and plays guitar and keyboards, toured with Ugly Casanova and played with kindred spirits Califone. He is accompanied on Mouthfuls by Gillian Lisee, who also provides gorgeous vocal accompaniment, plays bass, keys, and mandolin. It's hard to believe that sound textures this lush can come from two people, so, if nothing else, go see this band live when they come through town to see how they pull this off live.

With songs about rain and wind and clouds and rabbits and little acorns becoming mighty oaks, this is perfect music for spring, but you'll probably be listening to it all year round, whatever your mood. The songs teeter a fine line between melancholy and ecstacy like no music I've ever heard before. The most upbeat on the album song, closer "When U Love Somebody," completes its title with both "it's hard to think about anything but to breathe" and "bite your tongue all you get is a mouthful of blood."

These are just some of the many mouthfuls of beauty on the album. Conspiracy theorists will ponder the prescience of lines like "Love is like a spaceship burning up when it hits the atmosphere," at least if my assumption that it was written before we watched it happen earlier this year. It's just one of the many chilling moments on an altogether excellent disc. Look for it on critics' year end polls or cancel your subscriptions if you don't.

Firstly, if you're interested in the Fruit Bats, I recommend you check out the Subpop Records website for two free MP3 downloads ("A Bit of Wind" and "Slipping Through the Sensors")

If you enjoy the two freebies, you'll enjoy the rest of the album. I was worried that the freebies would be the only songs I liked, but alas that wasn't a problem here. Maybe look for a used copy if you're on the fence.

As for the sound, if bands were separated into neighborhoods based solely on their type of sound, I would place the Fruit Bats as musical neighbors of The Format, maybe two houses down.

No one's reviewed this yet? This is, hands-down, the best album you'll hear this year. Each and every song is a perfect pop masterpiece. You'll hear echoes of Brian Wilson, the Beatles,Dylan, and maybe Pink Floyd, the Kinks, Big Star, Wilco, and every other great band along those lines. Mouthfuls is no exception the great, great albums Sub Pop has been putting out lately, including ones from bands like the Shins, the Baptist Generals,Ugly Casanova (featuring Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brook and Holowpaw's John Orth (Holopaw being another great band on Sub Pop that has more than a little in common with Fruit Bats). You're just going to have to take my word for it when I tell you that I'd be telling you this even if I didn't have a friend who works for Sub Pop.

Eric Johnson, who comprises one half of the band, writes all the songs, sings, and plays guitar and keyboards, toured with Ugly Casanova and played with kindred spirits Califone. He is accompanied on Mouthfuls by Gillian Lisee, who also provides gorgeous vocal accompaniment, plays bass, keys, and mandolin. It's hard to believe that sound textures this lush can come from two people, so, if nothing else, go see this band live when they come through town to see how they pull this off live.

With songs about rain and wind and clouds and rabbits and little acorns becoming mighty oaks, this is perfect music for spring, but you'll probably be listening to it all year round, whatever your mood. The songs teeter a fine line between melancholy and ecstacy like no music I've ever heard before. The most upbeat on the album song, closer "When U Love Somebody," completes its title with both "it's hard to think about anything but to breathe" and "bite your tongue all you get is a mouthful of blood."

These are just some of the many mouthfuls of beauty on the album. Conspiracy theorists will ponder the prescience of lines like "Love is like a spaceship burning up when it hits the atmosphere," at least if my assumption that it was written before we watched it happen earlier this year. It's just one of the many chilling moments on an altogether excellent disc. Look for it on critics' year end polls or cancel your subscriptions if you don't.

No one's reviewed this yet? This is, hands-down, the best album you'll hear this year. Each and every song is a perfect pop masterpiece. You'll hear echoes of Brian Wilson, the Beatles,Dylan, and maybe Pink Floyd, the Kinks, Big Star, Wilco, and every other great band along those lines. Mouthfuls is no exception the great, great albums Sub Pop has been putting out lately, including ones from bands like the Shins, the Baptist Generals,Ugly Casanova (featuring Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brook and Holowpaw's John Orth (Holopaw being another great band on Sub Pop that has more than a little in common with Fruit Bats). You're just going to have to take my word for it when I tell you that I'd be telling you this even if I didn't have a friend who works for Sub Pop.

Eric Johnson, who comprises one half of the band, writes all the songs, sings, and plays guitar and keyboards, toured with Ugly Casanova and played with kindred spirits Califone. He is accompanied on Mouthfuls by Gillian Lisee, who also provides gorgeous vocal accompaniment, plays bass, keys, and mandolin. It's hard to believe that sound textures this lush can come from two people, so, if nothing else, go see this band live when they come through town to see how they pull this off live.

With songs about rain and wind and clouds and rabbits and little acorns becoming mighty oaks, this is perfect music for spring, but you'll probably be listening to it all year round, whatever your mood. The songs teeter a fine line between melancholy and ecstacy like no music I've ever heard before. The most upbeat on the album song, closer "When U Love Somebody," completes its title with both "it's hard to think about anything but to breathe" and "bite your tongue all you get is a mouthful of blood."

These are just some of the many mouthfuls of beauty on the album. Conspiracy theorists will ponder the prescience of lines like "Love is like a spaceship burning up when it hits the atmosphere," at least if my assumption that it was written before we watched it happen earlier this year. It's just one of the many chilling moments on an altogether excellent disc. Look for it on critics' year end polls or cancel your subscriptions if you don't see it.

Ok I have to give three rather than four stars. (Id like to give three and a half!)

There's lots to like about this album. Some nice country tunes and beach boys style melodies. Some of the songs could have done with more work however. The frustrating thing is that there are some beautiful lyrics here but maybe only four or five lines in a song - the rest either being filled by instrumental bits or repitition. Its a pity because there are some gems on here.

I would recommend this band and will look out for more of their stuff even though this album could have been better.

What can I say? It's just fun to listen to. Complex, well-done pop music. How many bands have really done that in the past - Beatles, Beach Boys, Abba. Add Fruit Bats to the list. Breezy, fun, interesting, subtle, complex, but never boring. Like a fine white wine, I'll be drinking it in all summer.