Fruit Bats - Mouthfuls

While a little late with our critical praise for this release, the Fruits Bats' newest full-length, Mouthfuls, hits the mark as far as eclectic, acoustic folk goes. Yet, there is a pop sensibility that rides underneath the entire album, found both in the musical progressions and the melodies. In the way that Beck sculpted his post-breakup opus, Sea Change, the Fruit Bats formed this album in a similar style. Though, it's evident they were definitely in a happier mood and thinking about things like nature and love (not the lack thereof). While I buy the "beautiful, heartfelt" tag the band categorize their own sound as, I'd say there's also a bit of oddity in their music. Those quirks are provided by songs like "Union Blanket", which is given its character by the digital taps and claps that play in the background, and in the way all the instruments start seemingly fighting each other at the end of "A Bit of Wind". Yet, their multi-layered arrangements, founded on mostly acoustic guitar, bass, drums and keyboard, provide a pleasantly strange background for Eric Johnson's smooth vocals and dead-on harmonies. But, don't expect all the eccentricity to come from the instruments themselves, because Johnson takes the album on semi-psychedelic adventure with the refrains and the ending measures of "The Little Acorn". Yet, amongst the twists and unadulterated happiness of songs like the closer, "When U Love Somebody", there are the hangover ballads, in the form "Track Rabbits" and "Lazy Eye", that roll and tumble along in their sincere delivery. Without much attention given, one might blow the Fruit Bats off as another electro-folk project resembling Califone. Yet, the Fruit Bats brand of hazy-afternoon, acoustic pop should reward any listener who brings some level of curiosity and a minute ounce of interest to Mouthfuls. [www.fruitbatsmusic.com]