The Pet Parade

Description

"The Pet Parade," the title track that opens Fruit Bats' new album, might surprise longtime fans of Eric D. Johnson's (Bonny Light Horseman, The Shins) indie folk-rock project. This tonal poem unfolds over six minutes with only two chords, inspired by the pet parades of his childhood held in La Grange, a suburb of Chicago. While many of the songs on The Pet Parade were written before the pandemic, it's impossible to separate the record from that era. Indeed, producer Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National, Bonny Light Horseman), Eric D. Johnson, drummers Joe Russo and Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Fleet Foxes), singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels, pianist Thomas Bartlett (Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens), and violinist Jim Becker (Califone, Iron & Wine) were forced to record their parts separately. Yet the songs possess enough intimacy that they don't sound as if they were recorded thousands of miles apart. This tension and turmoil impacted the album's lyrics. "Cub Pilot" and "Here For Now, For You," which began as traditional and personal love songs, became inclusive and universal. "The Balcony," which refers to his grandmother's apartment, transformed into a metaphor for patience. Sometimes optimistic and reassuring ("Eagles Below Us"), sometimes quietly contemplative ("On the Avalon Stairs"), The Pet Parade marks a significant milestone for Johnson, who celebrates 20 years of Fruit Bats in 2021...