Album Review: "Spelled in Bones" by Fruit Bats

Artist: Fruit Bats
Album: Spelled in Bones
Label: Sub Pop
Genre: Rock/Pop
Rating:
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Are you ready to gather round the campfire and sing pop jams? I sure am.

Enter Fruit Bats, another catchy triad from the Windy City, riding on the coattails of the ever-popular indie pop persuasion. Sure, the scene has been getting more than slightly played out, but lay down some fresh-faced folk beats alongside the Fruit Bats, and you have the sublimely effervescent Spelled in Bones, Fruit Bats’ latest effort.

Famous for the track “When U Love Somebody” – popularized a few years back via ‘Hear Music,’ aka the ubiquitous Starbucks soundtrack – Fruit Bats still hasn’t blown up to the extent that I would’ve expected, especially with a mention on the Urban Outfitters site’s suggestion column.

Granted, bands like the Fruit Bats are a dime a dozen, but the insight and cutesy capacity they have demonstrated lately has all but knocked my ballet flats right off into the Joanna Newsom territory I swore was so devastatingly 2005. And that’s really saying something.

- Review submitted by Naomi Raddatz.