Fruit Bats announce new album ‘The Pet Parade,’ share “The Holy Rose”

Fruit Bats have announced their ninth album, The Pet Parade, which will be out March 5 via Merge Records. Eric D Johnson enlisted his Bonny Light Horseman bandmate Josh Kaufman to produce, and he says the album celebrates "the beauty and absurdity of existence."

"While many of the songs on The Pet Parade were actually written before the pandemic, it's impossible to disassociate the record from the times," Eric says. Like many albums made in 2020, much of The Pet Parade was recorded remotely with musicians scattered across the country. "The songs have enough intimacy that it doesn't sound like it was made a million miles away."

The first single off the album is "The Holy Rose" which Johnson says is "possibly the most 'direct'" song on The Pet Parade. "I wrote this about the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County and was finishing it up right when fire season was raging in California," he says. "My wife grew up in Sonoma County and just had to sit there and watch her childhood burn down. This is a love song to the native West Coasters. Watch the video for that, and check out the album art and tracklist, below.

Fruit Bats surprise-released The Glory of Fruit Bats for Bandcamp Friday back in October (listen below), and Bonny LIght Horseman's debut was one of our favorite albums of 2020.

THE PET PARADE TRACKLIST

1. The Pet Parade
2. Club Pilot
3. Discovering
4. The Balcony
5. Here For Now, For You
6. On The Avalon Stairs
7. Eagles Below Us
8. Holy Rose
9. All In One Go
10. Gullwing Doors
11. Complete