FruitionFruition

Something MoreFor nearly two decades, Fruition have built their genre-bending version of American roots music around harmony not just the vocal interplay of the bands three songwriters, but the deeper harmony created between five friends whove spent years on the road together. On their eighth album, Something More, those bonds grow into something more collaborative than ever before.Produced by Grammy winner Tucker Martine, Something More steps beyond the live-in-the-studio performances of 2024s How To Make Mistakes. If that overdub-free record nodded to the bands strength as a live act to the musical chemistry theyve been developing since their busking days, when Jay Cobb Anderson, Kellen Asebroek, and Mimi Naja began performing together on Portland street corners then Something More finds Fruition stepping into an era defined as much by exploration as craft. The recording studio isnt just a room here; it functions as its own instrument, layering the music with analog tones and atmospheric textures. The result is an indie-influenced Americana record fueled not only by electric guitar, cello, Mellotron, and old-school drum machines, but by the melody-driven songwriting thats always anchored the bands sound.This time around, much of that songwriting took place during collaborative sessions that unfolded everywhere from a lakeside house in Denver to a flower-filled bungalow outside San Diego. There, Fruitions vocalists teamed up to write songs like Forward, How Does It Feel, and By Now, adding a shared perspective to a band whose previous albums including 2020s Wild As The Night, Broken At The Break Of Day, whose lead single Dawn became a hit on Americana radio often threaded three different visions from three different writers. Writing together is a gentle thing, says Anderson, who shares frontman duties with his two co-founders. People can get offended easily, but weve known each other for a long time, so it makes it easier to be vulnerable with each other. Its a sign of maturity.Maturity, indeed. Fruitions melting pot of rock, folk, pop, and soul has never sounded so fully-developed or so expansive. Forward makes room for slide guitar and a dry, deep-pocketed groove inspired by Bahamas, while All Over incorporates a vintage drum machine, a finger-plucked chord progression, and dub-inspired reverb influenced by Lee Scratch Perry. For every laidback moment like Reason To Live a rootsy love song, its gorgeous melody punctuated by harmonica theres an anthemic counterbalance like Im Not Afraid, whose indie-rock guitar figures and all-hands-on-deck refrains unwind like tailor-made moments for the bands live show. The title track even turns to gospel music for inspiration, mixing triple-stacked vocal harmonies with live-tracked piano. Tying everything together are autobiographical lyrics that tackle uncertainty, acceptance, and the bands long journey from past to present. more...