Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost

Indie singer/songwriter Eric Johnson celebrated the 20-year mark for his long-running project Fruit Bats by assembling a kind of anti-greatest-hits collection. 23-song compilation Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost Songs (2001–2021) doesnt just present the best known and most popular songs from Johnsons winding Fruit Bats discography, but splits its two discs into dramatically separate columns of material; a first half that paints a broad-stroked picture of the bands development over their first two decades while the second half gets far deeper into obscurities, unreleased tracks, home recorded demos, and the like. Even the half of Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud that serves as a general Fruit Bats primer takes an unconventional approach, starting with previously unreleased track "Rips Me Up." The slippery, groove-centric rocker was recorded shortly before the release of the compilation and channels solo John Lennons solo while amplifying the soul quotient with a chorus of powerful background vocals and mellow guitar leads. Tracks from across the Fruit Bats discography can either follow this approach, like the cheery orchestral folk-funk of "The Bottom of It" from 2019s Gold Past Life, or take the form of folksier instrumentation, as with the stripped-down live version of "When U Love Somebody" originally released on 2003 album Mouthfuls. "Glass in Your Feet" dates back to the bands 2001 debut Echolocation, and its lo-fi sound is an entirely different beast than the glowing production that the compilation starts with. Fruit Bats began as a way for Johnson to explore his songwriting through home recording, and the second half of Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud illuminates that side of the project with multiple demos and four-track recorded tunes. A hissy demo of Mouthfuls track "Rainbow Sign" adds an even deeper otherworldliness to an already beguiling song, and "The Old Black Hole" is similarly charming. Theres even a spare acoustic reading of the Steve Miller Band FM Radio staple "The Joker" just for good measure. Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud isnt the conventional best-of collection. Its thoughtful curation makes for a flow thats more in line with an artistic statement, detailing Johnsons range and evolution over the course of 20 years rather than simply slapping together the ten songs that had the best commercial showings. ~ Fred Thomas