Fruit Bats, the band led by indie rock songwriter Damien Jurado, made The Ruminant Band in 2009. It is a quiet, character-driven album built on acoustic guitar, gentle harmonies, and lyrics that lean into the strange and domestic. The title track sets the tone: a ruminant is an animal that chews its cud, and the album returns again and again to images of digestion, memory, and the slow passage of time.
This is not a loud record. It is a soft one, full of songs about small moments and big feelings. The music moves between folk, country, and Americana, with a production style that favors warmth over polish. The songs are short, rarely pushing past four minutes, and they repeat ideas across the track list rather than building toward a climax. That is the album’s strength and its weakness at once.
Opening With Primitive Man
The record opens with “Primitive Man,” a song about returning home and finding the world changed. The melody is simple, almost a lullaby, and the lyrics describe a man who feels out of place in his own life. It is a strong start, setting a tone of nostalgia and dislocation that the rest of the album will circle around.
“The Ruminant Band” follows, and it is the song that gives the album its name. It is a wry, self-aware look at the band’s own identity, with lyrics about being a group that writes about itself. The humor is light, the guitar work is steady, and the song ends before it overstays its welcome.
“Tegucigalpa” is the first real curveball. It is a travelogue song, named after the capital of Honduras, and it tells the story of a trip through Central America. The narrator describes the people he meets, the food he eats, and the sense of being somewhere unfamiliar. It is a pleasant change of pace, though it does not reach the heights of the album’s best tracks.
The Hobo Girl Through Featherbed
“Beautiful Morning Light” is a love song dressed as a morning meditation. The title suggests something bright and hopeful, but the lyrics are more complicated, dealing with the mess of relationships and the difficulty of staying present. It is a good song, but it is also the first sign that the album’s themes are starting to repeat themselves.
“The Hobo Girl” is a character study, told from the perspective of a hobo girl living on the road. The song is warm and specific, painting a picture of a woman who has chosen a life outside conventional society. It is one of the stronger tracks, because it commits fully to its subject rather than skimming over it.
“Being On Our Own” is a breakup song, and it is one of the most emotionally direct tracks on the album. The narrator sings about the loneliness of independence, and the music matches the sentiment with a slow, deliberate pace. It is not a standout, but it lands.
“My Unusual Friend” is a portrait of an eccentric neighbor, told with affection and curiosity. The song is funny and tender in equal measure, and it shows off Jurado’s gift for writing about odd characters with genuine warmth. It is one of the better tracks, and it earns its place near the middle of the record.
“Singing Joy To The World” is a cover of the Christmas carol, stripped down to just guitar and voice. It is a brief detour, and it works because it reframes a familiar tune as something intimate rather than festive. It is a nice pause, not a highlight.
The Blessed Breeze and Featherbed
“The Blessed Breeze” is the longest track on the album, and it is also one of the most ambitious. The song builds slowly, adding layers of harmony and instrumentation, and it tells a story about a wind that brings change. It is a good song, but it is also the moment where the album’s repetition becomes most noticeable.
“Featherbed” closes the main body of the record with a gentle, reflective tune about comfort and rest. The image of a featherbed carries the idea of softness and safety, and the song delivers on that promise. It is a pleasant closer, though it does not leave the listener with much new to think about.
The Flamingo Finale
The album ends with “Flamingo,” a short instrumental that uses a slide guitar to create a desert landscape. It is a mood piece, not a song with words, and it functions as a coda rather than a statement. It is a quiet way to end, and it fits the overall tone of the record.
Ranking the Tracks
Not every song on The Ruminant Band holds up equally. Here is how the eleven tracks stack up, from strongest to weakest:
- “My Unusual Friend”
- “The Hobo Girl”
- “Primitive Man”
- “The Blessed Breeze”
- “Beautiful Morning Light”
- “Featherbed”
- “Flamingo”
- “Tegucigalpa”
- “Being On Our Own”
- “Singing Joy To The World”
- “The Ruminant Band”
That ranking reflects the album’s strengths and weaknesses. The songs that commit to a single idea tend to work better than the ones that wander. The covers and the instrumental are pleasant but slight, while the character studies are where the record finds its best moments.
Verdict
The Ruminant Band is a competent, comfortable album. It is not a masterpiece, but it is a record that rewards attention. The best songs are memorable, and the worst are easy to forget. The problem is that the middle of the album drags, with several tracks feeling like variations on the same theme rather than distinct statements.
The album’s strengths are its specificity and its warmth. Jurado writes about ordinary people and ordinary moments with a care that makes them feel extraordinary. The music is never flashy, but it is always inviting. The album’s weakness is its lack of shape. It does not build toward a climax, and it does not resolve its ideas.
| Track | Length |
|---|---|
| 1. Primitive Man | 3:25 |
| 2. The Ruminant Band | 3:21 |
| 3. Tegucigalpa | 3:45 |
| 4. Beautiful Morning Light | 3:38 |
| 5. The Hobo Girl | 2:35 |
| 6. Being On Our Own | 3:33 |
| 7. My Unusual Friend | 4:02 |
| 8. Singing Joy To The World | 2:50 |
| 9. The Blessed Breeze | 4:45 |
| 10. Featherbed | 3:44 |
| 11. Flamingo | 4:02 |
The record is worth hearing, but it is not essential. It is a good album from a talented songwriter, not a great one. It is the kind of record that rewards patience and familiarity, and it is the kind of record that fades from memory quickly after the final note.
7 of 10.
- Primitive Man3:25
- The Ruminant Band3:21
- Tegucigalpa3:45
- Beautiful Morning Light3:38
- The Hobo Girl2:35
- Being On Our Own3:33
- My Unusual Friend4:02
- Singing Joy To The World2:50
- The Blessed Breeze4:45
- Featherbed3:44
- Flamingo4:02
