Albums
Tripper (Bonus Track Version)
2011
6.8
Release Date: 2011
By Aaron Leitko
Reviewed August 23, 2011
With Tripper, the group's fifth album, Fruit Bats dial their pulse back down, favoring spacious and spacey songwriting that sets the lyrics front and center. It's a record full of stories, simple narratives, and offbeat characters.
For a minute there, Fruit Bats rocked. On 2009's The Ruminant Band, the quartet, lead by seasoned indie sideman Eric D. Johnson (Califone, Vetiver, the Shins), eked up the tempo-- sidelining folksier impulses in favor of gently driving guitar pop that channeled -era Fleetwood Mac. Two years later, they're back to being mellow.