Sub Pop
2005
Spelled In Bones
About This Album
With a roll call of hangouts like Lookout Point and Makeout Creek and mentions of "singing along to 'Raspberry Beret,'" Spelled in Bones feels steeped in the sunny days of June, July, and August, when it's easy to be easygoing and too nice out to get too upset about things like mortality and heartache (even though you're still thinking about them). This, the Fruit Bats' third album, is still rooted in the folky indie pop of their earlier work, but Spelled in Bones is more polished, more focused, and feels more like the output of a full-fledged band, probably because they became a quartet instead of a duo with a cast of supporting characters. As on Mouthfuls, the Fruit Bats continue to move away from the country sounds of their debut, although lap steel and other shades of their beginnings resurface from time to time. Instead, the band looks to '70s pop for inspiration, as on the aptly named "Born in the '70s," which mixes Elton John falsettos, flute-like synths, and the aforementioned lap steel into something both familiar and quietly inventive; "The Wind That Blew My Heart Away," meanwhile, has a jaunty yet bittersweet melody that recalls the best of Paul McCartney's work from that decade.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 9)

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