When I was asked to review “Fruiting Body,” the latest single from LA-based indie group Goon, I didn’t think I would start by learning about fungi. But it’s a wild, strange world and perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised to find myself reading about mushrooms and the taxonomic hierarchy— remember species, genius, family, order, and so on? No? Me neither.
“Fruiting Body” is an alluring title, one of intrigue and mystery. Well, at least to me (a historically terrible student in the subjects of science) it’s a mystery; so this is where I began my work on this track. A fruiting body, turns out, refers to the spore-producing structure of fungi. Bandleader Kenny Becker found inspiration, or better, inSPOREation (I’m so sorry) when he happened upon a patch of mushrooms while walking along a waterway in Los Angeles. The sense of awe and discovery found in nature is ultimately this song’s thesis.
The track begins with the sound of windchimes before it settles into a warm and fuzzy lo-fi melody and rhythm. Percussion and guitar effortlessly glide the listener through a glowing landscape of nature’s whims. If like me, when listening you get the sense of being in a place that has long since passed, one that you visited as a child, then we’re on the same wavelength with the songwriter; in describing “Fruiting Bodies,” Becker writes about how he felt a tension between experiencing nostalgia and living in the present moment. Becker says, “The line ‘I found some pink glass buried under the deep end’ refers to rose colored glasses, specifically about the past but also being overcome with nostalgia.”
Being in nature and overcome with curiosity and a sense of adventure is for many of us synonymous with childhood. And for many of us, what we once enjoyed in childhood has long since been buried. If the songwriting in this track is at first ambiguous and feels strained to connect with, there’s nonetheless a feeling of connection, maybe to something we try to hang on to from the past. And I suppose this is nostalgia. After all, the word “nostalgia” has its origins in Greek, and roughly translates to mean a pain or ache felt associated with a longing to come home.
“Fruiting Bodies” isn’t overly sentimental, though. The strengths of this song come from the trance-like state of the sound, and the certain dreamy haziness created by the atmospheric vocals and synths. The track is perhaps best described by a feeling of warmth, at one point illustrated by the lyrics while the melody elevates us to a place of comfort.
say something untrue and kind
tuck me in and switch the light
If “Fruiting Body” is any indication of the direction Goon is going, then the band is certainly in a transformational change. They are growing and evolving; they are finding places—corners of nature— that they previously did not inhabit. But still, the sanctity of home and youth, the curiosity and joy experienced in the natural world, refuses to fade.
