Spelled In Bones

Description

Eric Johnson has been making experimental and pop-inflected folk-rock with increasing compositional and thematic complexity since Califone/Perishable Records founders Tim Rutili and Ben Massarella prompted him to explore his craft in the mid-90s. Johnsons recordings, enriched by contributions from an ever-revolving cast of Chicagoan characters (the current lineup includes I Rowboats Dan Strack and percussionist John Byce) used a melancholy hand to touch on love and the human experience on 2001s Perishable debut, Echolocation, and 2003s Sub Pop-released Mouthfuls. Around the release of Mouthfuls, Harp magazine described the Fruit Bats as residing somewhere on a continuum between Califone and The Shins, combining, the latters widescreen vision with the formers melodic knack to create something at once familiar and new.
After the years of extensive touring that followed, including stints with Modest Mouse, The Shins and Iron & Wine, as well as a handful of Wilco opening slots, Johnson returned to the drawing board with distinctly darker intent. I was going to write this dark bummer record with shades of optimism, but my life started getting better, he explains. The result of much soul-searching, Spelled in Bones is truly Johnsons enlightened Romantic opus in the 18th century English literary sense of the term. With an emphasis on the bigger picture of life as it relates to natures organic relationship to man (Legs of Bees, Spelled in Bones), and irrational, spontaneous moments of beauty and rebirth (Every Day That We Wake Up Its a Beautiful Day), Spelled in Bones proffers warm, thoughtful, bittersweet pop thats as hopeful as it is curious.