Album / Artist: Gold Past Life / Fruit Bats
Label: Merge Records

Reviewed: 10/8/2019
DJ Stace

General Comments / Release Notes
From release notes: “Gold Past Life marks both an end and a beginning. It’s the end of an unintentional thematic trilogy of records that began with 2014’s EDJ (a solo record by name, but a Fruit Bats release in spirit) and hit an emotional peak with 2016’s Absolute Loser. They encompassed years of loss, displacement, and the persistent, low-level anxiety of the current political climate. They were written in the wake of friends who left these earthly confines and families that could have been.”

The fun part of this one is to try to pinpoint the 70’s & 80’s album rock each song is aping. Great chamber pop, with turns of brilliance in the beginning of the album. Title track is as addictive as it gets.

FCCs: none
RIYL: BeeGees, Fleetwood Mac, Beirut, Andrew Bird
Play: All, Especially: 1,2,4

Tracks:
1. *** The Bottom of It 03:01 - Nice intro with Oooohs and piano, interplaying, quickly turns to a midtempo toe tapper. Great groove and lyrical turns.
2. **** Gold Past Life 03:29 - Mid to uptempo infectious rhythm between the piano and bass. The Beegees song. Seriously, I dare you not to turn into Travolta in a white poly 3-piece suit, pulling your hottest disco moves on the chorus. A perfect pop song.
3. Drawn Away 04:06 - Tom Petty acoustic strumming rocker. Mid to uptempo.
4. ** Cazadera 03:25 - Vaguely Fleetwood Mac feel to this midtempo snare and handclap timed acoustic strummer. Light and easy, like the outro chorus “sometimes a cloud is just a cloud….”
5. Ocean 03:18 - Another Fleetwood Mac, with some vocals nods to John Lennon. Midtempo, with acoustic guitar and shaker dominating. Light and airy.
6. Your Dead Grandfather 02:50 - Uptempo, but light. Electronic handclaps punctuate. Steel guitar gives sit a feeling that is familiar, but I can’t place the 70’s album this one sounds like. There is one, though.
7. A Lingering Love 03:36 - Delivered with a little bit of country rock twang and steel guitar. Might sound a bit like some 80’s alt-crooners, like Simply Red.
8. Barely Living Room 03:25 - Slow, Piano-based and possibly another nod to 80’s Lennon, sonically.
9. *** Mandy from Mohawk (Wherever You May Be) 03:47 - Dylanesque lyrically, in phrasing and musically. Midtempo and simple with a great rythm between the acoustic guitar and the lightly served drums. Airy, and desertous. Sounds like driving across parts of West Texas and New Mexico.
10. Dream Would Breathe 03:57 - Midtempo 80’s aadult contemporary rock. Acoustic guitar and piano with a straightforward rhythm. Maybe the Eagles?
11. Two Babies in Michigan 03:46 - Electronica intro reminiscent of Gary Numan, maybe? Not sure if that’s intentional. Slow to midtempo, drum machine aand buzzy keyboard, lends a metalicness. If the lyrics were delivered by a robot, it would be Gary Numan.