Fruit Bats – “Rips Me Up”

It’s impossible to give everything a fair shake around here, and I’ll be honest, the release of Fruit Bats’ LP The Pet Parade slipped by me last year. Really digging into this new cut, though, which features as the ‘new track on a comp of faves’ nestled in among the round up of Eric D. Johnson’s favorite works over his career. “Rips Me Up” is doused in a kind of swaggering, tie-loosened ‘70s grandeur. Originally recorded along with the sessions for The Pet Parade, the cut didn’t fit the tone of the album, but as a standalone it’s got a sweat-matted and oddly wrecked feeling to it, despite its polished exterior. Beset by feelings of loss, there’s a pain that’s palpable in Johnson’s tidal breath slide underneath those background vocals. The new collection Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost Songs (2001–2021) is out January 28th, 2022 on Merge Records.

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