Baby Man, the new album by Fruit Bats, is like nothing else in Grammy-nominated songwriter Eric D. Johnson’s catalog. Little in the arc of his career - including Fruit Bats’ evolution from home recording project to rollicking roadshow, his solo output, and his work with Bonny Light Horseman - points the way to this album, in which his only accompaniment, aside from the occasional blush of synthesizer, is a guitar, banjo, or piano. An exercise in what Johnson calls "minimalist maximalism," Baby Man commands the listener's ear—it’s just Johnson in the room, meaning that when the turntable needle meets Baby Man’s groove, it’s just him and the listener, mutually in for a reckoning.
