Customer Reviews

echolocation

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's that spontaneous trip to the cabin. Sitting by the lake, wrapped in gentle mountain weather. No one else around but those few close friends. Watching deer graze nearby. Every star is exposed. Skinny-dipping in the lake. Crickets whispering to each other. Your marshmellow just fell in the fire.

Heavenly and delectable. For the escapist in all of us.

The Fruit Bats (Eric Johnson: songwriter, vocals, banjo, guitars & most other instruments) mix "psychedelic" (hate that word but..) front-porchy folk and fancy harmonies with eclectic rock-influenced instrumentations and surprisingly smart, weird lyrics that take us into another world. The 12 songs happily alternate between down-to-earth and outer space - lyrically, nothing here is melancholy, but there is a tangible sense that the world is very big and the important moments are really, really small. The vocal arrangements seem to come from vaguely recognizable sources in pop, indie rock and folk/country americana but they're deftly delivered in unique and catchy tunes that synthesize the complexities in life and music right now. It's like Johnson's inner life and musical unconscious just laid itself out on a lovely field, staring up into the sky and tapping its toes: you can't help but want to join in, but you're not sure if it's day or night. And are those voices coming from your own head, the stars, or the mosquitoes? Echolocation is accessible music that's also rewarding in its tricky and beautiful revelations. Dreamy from beginning to end!

This album reminds of the very best of a Midwestern summer: the bugs at night, a cloudless sky, bike rides in the country. I am still amazed that people say there is "no good music" out there. The problem I have encountered is that it is hidden away in the musical underground, a place where, I suppose, almost everything good about this country hides anymore.

The Fruit Bats take the listener on a journey that transports one through multi-layered cuts of CoRoFo (Country, Rock, Folk in an Alt. way). The Fruit Bats music emerges sounding as if it met its Dylanesque meets James Taylor and Mark Knopfler or the Beatles counterpart. The genius is it possesses multiple layers of meaning but you are only obligated to delve as deep as you choose on a given day. You still win. Listened to this while driving the car, with headset, with my friends and while sipping wine.

The music has a simple yet sophisticated feel. Songwriter Eric Johnson is skilled at massaging words. The Fruit Bats, some of the best musicians of this genre, meld a national geographic type of verbal visualizatiom with creative, deftly unique melodic mixes. Some pieces carry the day with Johnson doing instrumentation nearly all on his own. Most others almost give you the feeling of an orchestral sound that draws in the listener.

I love percussion. It is effective, yet understated percussion with pleasant surprises.

There is nothing formula about this CD and anyone who loves music will appreciate its honesty, inner depth, and fun time during bad times feeling.

Fruit Bats feed upon a country-rock americana folk, doing it in a stylistic fashion that is pleasingly unique. They use mandolins, banjos, marimbas and acoustic guitars coupled with super-rock sets and minimalistic country sounds that provide the listener with varied, distinctive sounds. Eric Johnson adds to the diversity with his poetic lyrics; the total CD creation draws one to want to listen to this album multiple times. I have yet to get tired of it. When I saw Fruit Bats perform, they we were pleasing, as well.

When you love somebody and bite your tongue...


This is such a great album. Wholeheartedly recommend. I can listen to "When U love Somebody" 4x a day still, many years after purchasing this cd.

I had to buy this album after watching the KQED documentary "Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America." A lot of it is in the soundtrack. Gorgeous archival footage of the national parks by the man who helped save them by filming them for the Sierra Club. Worth renting or buying the DVD:
[...]

Here's the amazon link for it:
Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America

What does it sound like? Like dropping acid in the middle of nowhere. Intimate acoustic folk music melting into a vast eno-esque sonic landscape, with body rushes of electric guitar. Awesome awesome awesome.
Like "Fat Old Sun" on Atom Heart Mother
Atom Heart Mother

Or "Sufficiently Breathless" by Captain Beyond
Sufficiently Breathless

The Fruit Bats are definitely a talented, alt-country-pop band that deserve to be mentioned alongside The Shins, Band of Horses, etc. This debut album, however, is not indicative of their full potential. I had to give this 2 stars, simply because everyone else is full on raving about what a classic album this is. It actually is rather boring unless you want to hear lo-fi vocals and a guitar strumming the same chords on every song. Some slide guitar mixed in with harmonizing vocals save a few songs, but I have to say this is no classic. Don't listen to the guy's review who was listening while drinking and driving or the other one who wishes he was camping in 2002 all over again. Try out Mouthfuls or Spelled in Bones, or both, and then come back to this one if you LOVE both of those albums. These 3 albums are probably going to be the entire Fruit Bats catalogue, as the main man here has joined The Shins. A likely progression and natural move. Love(d) the Fruit Bats, didn't love this album.

I play this CD when I want to let my mind wonder thinking about the Falls of the Neuse river flowing slowly to the ocean, when I'm relaxing over a beer, or just looking to escape from a a hectic day. Thanks for the music Eric. You're quite a talent!