Fruit Bats
Gold Past Life
Release Date: Jun 21, 2019
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Record label: Merge
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Gold Past Life from Amazon
Album Review: Gold Past Life by Fruit Bats
Great, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
The project's seventh proper studio album overall, Gold Past Life marks the Merge Records debut of Eric D. Johnson's Fruit Bats. It's their first since 2016's Absolute Loser three years prior, though in the meantime, Johnson released the Record Store Day odds-and-ends collection The Glory of Fruit Bats as well as a live acoustic EP with Vetiver's Andy Cabic.
Based on rating 7/10
"I can't envision who I've become" sings Eric D. Johnson on "Cazadera," the fourth track on Gold Past Life, Fruit Bats' latest album. It's a simple line, one that could easily have been shrouded by the lush noise accompanying Johnson's voice, but one that perfectly encapsulates the feeling of being adrift in the liminal present — a sentiment that pervades the entire album. True to its name, Gold Past Life sifts through vignettes and memories of days gone by: some rose-tinted from time and nostalgia; others clarified by hindsight ….
'Gold Past Life'
is available now