{"product_id":"sometimes-a-cloud-is-just-a-cloud-slow-growers-sleeper-hits-and-lost-songs-2001-2021","title":"Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost Songs (2001  2021)","description":"\u003cp\u003eEric D. Johnson, the creative force behind Fruit Bats, doesn’t spend a lot of time looking in the rearview mirror. “Maybe it speaks to some Midwest thing,” he says. “Don’t be overly reflective or navel-gazing. And as a songwriter, you always want to be looking forward, not backward.” But with the 20th anniversary of his first Fruit Bats release (2001’s \u003ci\u003eEcholocation\u003c\/i\u003e) on his mind, it seemed as good a time as any to take stock of his work—and he’s doing so in the form of \u003ci\u003eSometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost Songs (2001–2021)\u003c\/i\u003e, a two-disc collection that tracks the history of Fruit Bats from its earliest days to right now. Thoughtfully compiled by Johnson himself, this set is split in two distinct halves. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet in reverse chronological order, the first disc cherry-picks from Fruit Bats’ official releases, including fan favorites “Humbug Mountain Song” from 2016’s \u003ci\u003eAbsolute Lose\u003c\/i\u003er and “The Bottom of It” from his 2019 Merge debut \u003ci\u003eGold Past Life\u003c\/i\u003e alongside some of Johnson’s more personal choices like “Glass in Your Feet” from Echolocation. “I was 25 when I made that record,” Johnson remembers. “I was even younger than that when I wrote that song. I think I hadn’t yet learned to write from the heart. I was trying to create a sound. It wasn’t even so much about the song at that point.” To emphasize both his reticence at dwelling on the past and to showcase how far he has grown as a songwriter, the first disc kicks off with a brand-new track, “Rips Me Up.” Recorded with Josh Kaufman, who helped produce Fruit Bats’ 2021 full-length The Pet Parade, the song is a soulful strutter about, as Johnson says in the liner notes for this set, how love “paralyzes and wounds us.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe second disc is for longtime fans that want a deeper dive into Fruit Bats lore. To put this half of \u003ci\u003eSometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud\u003c\/i\u003e together, Johnson dug into several hard drives’ worth of material. Included here are lovely early versions of “Rainbow Sign” and “The Old Black Hole,” recorded to a Tascam 4-track just as Fruit Bats was becoming a reality. There’s also a rambling take on the Steve Miller Band’s classic rock mainstay “The Joker,” and some wonderful never-before-heard original tunes.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Merge Records","offers":[{"title":"Pink | LP | x2","offer_id":50502539706699,"sku":"1135279","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/f29432f0-dd3d-4aa6-b63f-8bd7fd361a25_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727791088","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/products\/sometimes-a-cloud-is-just-a-cloud-slow-growers-sleeper-hits-and-lost-songs-2001-2021","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}