Perishable Fruit

Patty Larkin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 8, 2011)
• Original Release Date: August 26, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Windham Hill Records
• ASIN: B00000132G
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,084 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pay attention to the moon rising behind you..., November 3, 2000

By 

"[e-mail]" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perishable Fruit (Audio CD)

If you're interested in what I think of Patty Larkin as a musician in general, go check out my review on her "Angels Running" page from September '99.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Back? Good. Here's the thing about "Perishable Fruit." It was an experiment -- all the percussion is done with stringed instruments, so think guitar slapping and you're halfway there. Except that this is Patty Larkin, and she manages to evoke bongos, marimbas, different and varying multiethnic-influenced sounds with her array of stringed instruments, and it all works.

This is a pulsating, catchy, fascinating album, but even beyond that, it has some of Larkin's most intelligent and moving lyrics.

This new percussion sound reaches its height with "Pablo Neruda," a spare, slappy, plunky coconut-rattling island-influenced narrative. It's also effective on "Wolf at the Door" -- a response to the spoiled cult of chick singers (I read somewhere it was addressed to Joan Jett, but that's unsubstantiated...so far) who "hang their sweaty little black leather dresses on her guitar." "Wolf" is a rocker in grand Larkin tradition, with a bit more harshness than some of her previous rock-influenced efforts, and a bit more depth.

But these spare, unencumbered sounds also support some truly moving lyrics and stories. "Rear View Mirror" is one of the saddest songs ever written; in six and a half minutes it tells the story of being alone with your soul in a soullless world where everyone's got their own agendas. She opens with: "I saw you / I saw you as you drove away. You checked yourself / you checked yourself in the rear view mirror / and I thought / I thought that you were looking at me..."

The story in "Brazil" is equally enthralling, reminiscent of relationship stories in Patty's earlier work. "The Road" is a musician's confessional; "Heart" is a smart woman's.

Amazon's review is right on: this is like a fish in the sun, but it's also like coconut drinks on the beach, a bronzed native playing the bongos...this is Patty Larkin in Boston in the winter reminding you about coconut drinks and fish and a red accordian, playing like a native on the bongos with nothing but her guitar.

I've got every Patty Larkin album and I love 'em all. PERISHABLE FRUIT stands out because of this, from "Red Accordian":

"Pay attention to the moon rising behind you. / Look at life like a tragedy and it'll blind you. / I'll make a fool of myself, maybe that will remind you how."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dependable excellence, May 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Perishable Fruit (Audio CD)

Patty Larkin is the poster person for the unjustly neglected folk-oriented singer songwriter. Album after album she excels in every aspect of her recordings -- songwriting, clever lyrics, rich, flexible voice, and stunnning guitar work. This is another fine effort with songs that cling in the mind. Everything rings true except Jane Siberry's bizarre, spaced-out backing vocals on "Coming Up for Air," and that sounds more like an experiment that didn't work than a major mistake. You will listen many times to this CD.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of the best, January 31, 2008

By 

Cecil Bothwell "Author of "Whale Falls: A... (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perishable Fruit (Audio CD)

Patty Larkin is a superb songwriter, musician and performer. She hasn't created a bad album, ever, but this is her best (and I've been listening to her music since 1979). caveat: I haven't heard her newest - the 2008 release - at this writing. Larkin defly handles complicated emotional and interpersonal issues, has a wicked sense of humor and a finely tuned musicality. Her take on personal psychology is often quirky and always insightful. (If she does a show within a day's drive, don't miss it.) I'm a deejay and play her music frequently on the air, in my car and in my home. This is singer/songwriter, folk-rock at its best. And what a voice!