Marissa R. Moss
View all posts by Marissa R. Moss June 12, 2026
Songwriter Eric D. Johnson recruits a full band for his latest Fruit Bats project, 'The Landfill.' Kelsey Gallagher* “They say a bird in the hand is worth somethin’, but I forget what,” Eric D. Johnson sings on “The Saddest Part of the Song,” the sweeping opening track on his 12th album recording as Fruit Bats, The Landfill. One song later, he is questioning again: “Time heals all wounds is a thing they say, but I haven’t always found it to be that way.”
On this 10-track collection, Johnson is as adept at deconstructing melodies as he is platitudes. Inspired by the junk-filled holes in his native Midwest that eventually become mountains, The Landfill explores the unglamorous bits that make up the human story, and how everything that matters to us is born of something (or someone) else.
Produced by Johnson with additional production and mixing from longtime collaborator Thom Monahan, The Landfill trades the more intimate introspection of his previous work, Baby Man, for the dynamism of the Fruit Bats live band, recording with minimal overdubs and zero click tracks at Washington’s Bear Creek Studios. That’s how his trio, Bonny Light Horseman, usually approaches their projects — and here, that looseness brings some of the most sonically rich work Fruit Bats have captured in the studio yet.
