Eric D. Johnson, writing and recording under the moniker Fruit Bats, often includes geography in his lyrics. Nowhere is that more apparent than in A River Running to Your Heart, his tenth and latest record.
“Sometimes the places are real, sometimes they’re emotional. I’ve always liked the idea of songs and albums that exist in a continuum with one another. I’m not talking about some kind of deep series of concept albums, mind you. More like the idea that my songs are all pretty much tributaries of the same river. Which makes a lot of metaphorical sense because my path has been long and winding and often slow and muddy. But always moving towards the sea,” Johnson says.
With A River Running to Your Heart, he maps out all of that emotional and often real geography into a single album. One of the record’s first singles, “Rushin’ River Valley,” named after a landmark near where his wife grew up in Northern California, not only serves as beautiful building block for the rest of the album but is easily the most infectious track on the album, with its breezy, upbeat jam. It’s up there with the solid indie pop mid-tempo “Waking Up in Los Angeles” and the charming “Tacoma,” (see two more geographical references!) as some of the record’s early highlights.
Those tracks serve as a counterweight for some of the mellower numbers on the album, including the brief instrumental tracks “Dim North Star” and “Meridian”. The record closes on “Jesus Tap Dancing Christ (It’s Good to Be Home),” bringing the record full circle, closing out his emotional journey. Johnson self-produced A River Running to Your Heart, a first for him, following up 2021’s The Pet Parade and his role in the indie folk trio Bonny Light Horseman’s 2022 album, Rolling Golden Holy.
