Fruit Bats - Baby Man - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

A River Running to Your Heart represents the fullest realization of Johnson's creative vision to date. It's a sonically diverse effort that largely explores the importance of what it means to be home, both physically and spiritually. Self-produced by Johnson-a first for Fruit Bats-with Jeremy Harris at Panoramic House just north of San Francisco, A River Running to Your Heart is Fruit Bats' tenth full-length . The album finds the project in the middle of a people-powered climb leading to the biggest shows, loudest accolades, and most enthusiastic new fans in Fruit Bats history! It's hard to pinpoint a single reason for this mid-career resurgence. But after two decades of making music, hard-earned emotional maturity has clearly seeped into Johnson's already inviting songs, resulting in a sound that's connected with audiences like no other previous version of the band.

you can't go wrong with Oistrakh's pre-authenticity Mozart. True, this is big-boned, dyed in the wool Mozart, 1960's style. Tempi are relaxed, textures quite heavy and the ethos masculine and robust... subtle shadings are there - but the prevailing spirit is strong-limbed engagement. K216 was always one of his best pieces of Mozart playing... he also contributes his own, rather good, cadenzas... second movement characteristically expressive and full of the artist's noble warmth, and a spirit of romance enlivens the finale. Sinfonia Concertante opens at a real maestoso-qualified Allegro. Directed from the viola by Barshai... once again, there's real affection in the Andante and the finale is nicely buoyant (MusicWeb)

Gold Past Life marks both an end and a beginning for Fruit Bats. It's the end of an unintentional thematic trilogy of records that began with 2014's EDJ (a solo record by name, but a Fruit Bats in spirit) and hit an emotional peak with 2016's Absolute Loser. They encompassed years of loss, displacement, and the persistent, low-level anxiety of the current political climate. They were written in the wake of friends who left these earthly confines and families that could have been. But these salves, these songs on Gold Past Life, also represent new beginnings-the journeys that await after making it through troubled times. Gold Past Life is about rejecting notions of idealized nostalgia (InchGold Past LifeInch) and the process of grounding oneself in the present, both geographically (InchA Lingering Love,Inch InchOceanInch) and spiritually (InchDrawn AwayInch). With Gold Past Life, Eric Johnson of Fruit B hopes to bring more immediacy to the music and share positivity, hope, and motivation to keep on keepin' on with a wider audience.