Arriving 20 years after
Fruit Bats' debut album,
The Pet Parade finds project leader
Eric D. Johnson collaborating with producer and Bonny Light Horseman colleague
Josh Kaufman and instrumentalists including keyboardist
Thomas Bartlett,
Iron & Wine violinist
Jim Becker, and drummers Joe Russo (
Kevin Morby,
Cass McCombs) and Matt Barrick (
Fleet Foxes,
the Walkmen). A typically affable and bittersweet outing for
Johnson, it was written before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the musicians to record it primarily remotely in various home studios. Despite that detail, the album carries a reliably loose, breezy demeanor within full-band arrangements, including on opening track "The Pet Parade." Inspired by the memory of actual pet parades held in his grandmother's hometown, it explores themes of the passage of time and life with minimal chord movement and repeated lyrics like "Here we are, once again here" and "It feels like it's been years." Meanwhile, it sets a sonic template with warm acoustic guitar, pedal steel, and a sauntering rhythm section, eventually adding touches of fiddle, vintage keys, and vocal harmonies. Though much of the album follows that song's gait,
Johnson picks up the tempo on the more urgent, still wistful "The Balcony." It again addresses time and transitions while homing in on isolation ("Now alone again as usual/Out on the balcony"). Elsewhere, "Holy Rose" takes on a bluesier hue, and "Complete" closes the set on a stripped-down, consoling acoustic guitar ballad that insists, "But you shall be complete/I decree it so." If
The Pet Parade doesn't break new ground, it does offer comfort and compassion wrapped in a honeyed, effortless indie folk that honors the project's now-long tenure. ~ Marcy Donelson