Fruit Bats annoncerer nyt album – A River Running to Your Heart ude d. 14/4

I dag kan Fruit Bats (med det borgerlige navn Eric D. Johnson) annoncere udgivelsen af det nye album A River Running to Your Heart, der udkommer d. 14. april på Merge Records / Playground Music. Sammen med annonceringen kan man i dag høre singlen ’Rushin’ River Valley’ her.

“Over the years there's been a lot of geography in my music, a lot of landscapes,” siger Johnson. “Sometimes the places are real, sometimes they're emotional. I've always liked the idea of songs and albums that exist in a continuum with one another. I'm not talking about some kind of deep series of concept albums, mind you. More like the idea that my songs are all pretty much tributaries of the same river. Which makes a lot of metaphorical sense because my path has been long and winding and often slow and muddy. But always moving towards the sea.”

“I guess you could say this album is the one where I took all that emotional geography and kind of mapped it out.”

‘Rushin’ River Valley’ er en hjørnesten på Johnsons tiende studiealbum under kunstnernavnet Fruit Bats. På sangen kan man høre mange af Johnsons signatur-elementer: En drivende rytme, diskrete instrumentale lag, højtonede vokal og hans personlige dialoger; Could I be your North Star? / Or maybe a river running to your heart? / My love is what the flood can’t wash away.

“When I first met my wife, she kept referring to a ‘Rushin' River Valley’ that was near where she grew up in West Sonoma County, CA,” fortæller Johnson. “I really thought she was leaning into a folksy colloquialism, dropping the ‘g’ on ‘rushing’ and all. It took me a while to learn that she was actually talking about the Russian River Valley – a beautiful area known for redwoods and chardonnay and biblical-level flooding.”

“This song is about true love, and the question of whether we are fated to be together or if it's all just universal chaos tossing us around. It's also about ghosts and bad dreams and trying to move forward and climbing over a mountain and hoping to glimpse the other side.”

A River Running to Your Heart er Fruit Bats første fuldlængde album siden The Pet Parade fra 2021. Albummet følger også op på indiefolk trioen Bonny Light Horsemans (hvor Johnson udgør en tredjedel) anmelderroste album Rolling Golden Holy fra 2022.