Spelled In Bones

Fruit Bats' second Sub Pop LP and third overall is their first without Brian Deck as producer; the result is more spic-and-span 70s pop.

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).

It might not be innovative or progressive, but Spelled In Bones is as straightforwardly good as any pop album this year.

Whenever I listen to the Fruit Bats I always picture frontman Eric Johnson in an overstuffed chair reading Moby Dick, perhaps smoking a pipe, and speculate...