Bavarian Fruit Bread

Bavarian Fruit Bread is the debut studio album from Hope Sandoval, the vocalist of Mazzy Star and Colm Ó Cíosóig, the drummer of My Bloody Valentine, released under the name Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions on October 23, 2001 by Sanctuary Records in the United States and on November 5, 2001 by Rough Trade in the United Kingdom.

Bavarian Fruit Bread
Studio album by Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions
Released	October 23, 2001 (2001-10-23)
Recorded	2000 in Oakland, London & Oslo[1]
Genre	Alternative rock, dream pop, folk
Length	49:24
Label	Sanctuary (U.S.) Rough Trade (U.K.)
Producer	Hope Sandoval Colm Ó Cíosóig
Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions chronology
At the Doorway Again (2000) Bavarian Fruit Bread (2001) Through the Devil Softly (2009)

"Suzanne," the album's first and only official single, became a minor hit, with its accompanying music video, directed by Elise Collins, receiving heavy rotation on MTV2 in both the US and UK. A few songs on the album, including "Suzanne", pre-date the formation of Mazzy Star.[2]

Seminal folk musician Bert Jansch performed guitar on two songs on the album, "Charlotte" and "Butterfly Mornings," the latter being a cover of a song used in the 1970 film The Ballad of Cable Hogue, where it appeared under its original title of "Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons." A large portion of "Butterfly Mornings" was used in an advert for Irish TV channel Setanta Sports during Christmas period 2009.

The Japanese and Australian releases contain a thirteenth track, "Sparkly", as a bonus track; it is identical to the track of the same name that appears on the accompanying At the Doorway Again EP, which was released over a year before its parent album.

The album entered and peaked at #39 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Alternative Press	[4]
ArtistDirect	[5]
Drowned In Sound	[6]
E! Online	[7]
Mojo	[8]
Neumu.net	[9]
NME	[10]
Pitchfork Media	(5.6/10)[11]
Spin	[7]
Uncut	[7]

Initial critical response to Bavarian Fruit Bread was generally positive. According to Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 75 out of 100, based on 15 reviews.[7]

Many of the positive reviews focused heavily on Sandoval's vocals,[7] with Q magazine stating that "the glacial tones and chimes that The Velvet Underground modelled on "Sunday Morning" are invoked with absolute perfection. Yet even beyond this, Sandoval's sedated, spellbound voice remains a remarkable presence."[12] Lori Miller Barrett, in an overwhelmingly positive review of the album for neumu.net, stated "it's magical and mysterious, compelling and complex," before giving the record a 10 out of 10 score.[9] Alternative Press described the album as "consistently intriguing, haunting and above all, very good," before giving the album a 9 out of 10 score.[4]

Nathan Rooney from Pitchfork opened his review with the personal assessment that he had "begun to grow tired of the Mazzy Star formula before [the group] dissolved," and that without a solid shift in theme and sound from that of her previous work with Mazzy Star, Bavarian Fruit Bread ended up sounding like "a narcissistic and self-paroding record." However, the opening three tracks and the "gorgeous" Charlotte were singled out for particular praise. Also given a positive summation was the track Around My Smile which, despite being described positively as "psychodelic [sic] soul romp," was ultimately dismissed as being "uncreative." The two instrumental pieces were described as "attempts to break new ground," but again were dismissed for "adding nothing [new] to the course of the album."[11]

Allmusic, whose review — along with the review from Pitchfork — was among the most critical, complimented the album's use of "child-like bells, cello and piano, alt-country electric and chamber-bare acoustic guitar and harmonica gasps," but ultimately dismissed the "minimal" backing tracks as "unsatisfying" and summarized the album as "[not particularly] compelling, striking or affecting."[3]

The November 2001 issue of Mojo magazine commented that "[there] is a narcotic quality to these drifting ballads, one that perfectly suits these shell-shocked, terrorised times. As the world gears up for the Apocalypse, I shall take comfort in Bavarian Fruit Bread -- a very haunting, beautiful record."[8] The album was released exactly six weeks after the 9-11 terrorist attacks in New York.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Drop"	William Reid	2:32
2.	"Suzanne"	Sandoval	4:51
3.	"Butterfly Mornings"	Richard Gillis	3:34
4.	"On the Low"	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig Alan Browne Paul McQuillan	5:09
5.	"Baby Let Me"	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig	1:32
6.	"Feeling of Gaze"	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig	3:26
7.	"Charlotte"	Sandoval	4:31
8.	"Clear Day"	Sandoval	6:08
9.	"Clear Day (Reprise)" (Unlisted)	Sandoval	1:18
10.	"Bavarian Fruit Bread"	Sandoval	4:07
11.	"Around My Smile"	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig Browne McQuillan	4:38
12.	"Lose Me on the Way"	Sandoval	7:42
13.	"Sparkly" (Japanese/Australian bonus track)	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig	2:32
Total length:			51:57

Taiwanese bonus disc (AG-031)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Sparkly"	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig	2:23
2.	"Down the Steps"	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig	3:44
3.	"I Thought You'd Fall for Me"	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig	4:55
4.	"These Things"	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig	3:02
5.	"Friends of a Smile"	Sandoval Ó Cíosóig	2:45
Total length:			16:56

2009 reissue

• The 2009 re-release erroneously excluded "Lose Me on the Way."[13]

• When the album was first uploaded to iTunes servers, the song "Clear Day (Reprise)", a short instrumental interlude, was inadvertently omitted, so that the remainder of the song titles are incorrectly named. "Bavarian Fruit Bread" erroneously became "Around My Smile" and "Around My Smile" erroneously became "Lose Me on the Way" and "Lose Me On The Way" is completely omitted and does not appear on the digital/streaming platforms at all. The members of the band or their management have yet to rectify this issue.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Bavarian Fruit Bread.[14]

• Hope Sandoval – vocals and backing vocals, guitars, keyboards, glockenspiel, harmonica and production
• Colm Ó Cíosóig – backing vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, engineering, production and mixing
• Mads Bjerke – mixing on "Drop"
• Alan Browne – bass on "Drop," "On the Low" and "Around My Smile"
• Scott Campbell – engineering
• Elise Collins – artwork (film stills)
• Jill Emery – bass on "Bavarian Fruit Bread"
• Julian Goldwhite – guitar on "Bavarian Fruit Bread"
• Arve Henrickson – trumpet on "Lose Me on the Way"
• Bert Jansch – guitar on "Butterfly Mornings" and "Charlotte"
• Paul McQuillan – guitar on "On the Low" and "Around My Smile"
• Ji-Young Moon – cello on "Feeling of Gaze" and "Down the Steps"
• Nicole Presley – backing vocals on "Drop"
• Mike Prosenko – guitar on "Drop"; artwork (sleeve design)
• Heige Sten – engineering and mixing
• Audun Strype – mastering

Charts

Chart (2001)	Peak position
Norwegian Albums Chart[15]	40
U.S. Billboard Top Heatseekers[16]	39

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United States	October 23, 2001	Sanctuary Records	CD	06076-83201-2
Japan		P-VINE Records	CD	—
United Kingdom	November 5, 2001	Rough Trade Records	CD/LP	RTRADECD/LP-031
Australia	February 5, 2002	EMI International	CD	—
Taiwan	May 7, 2002	Avant Garden Records	2-CD Deluxe Edition	AG-031
United Kingdom	September 28, 2009	Nettwerk	11-track CD reissue	5-037703-087026
United States	September 29, 2009	Nettwerk	11-track CD reissue	B002L430K0

References

1. A New Hope Rises: Mazzy Star's Sandoval makes a solo statement hopesandoval.com. Access date: February 3, 2011.
2. "Hope Sandoval Breaks Bread" rollingstone.com. Access Date: 21st January 2010.
3. AllMusic Review allmusic.com. Access date: January 5, 2011.
4. "Alternative Press". Dec 2001. p. 96. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
5. ArtistDirect Review artistdirect.com. Access date: January 5, 2011.
6. Drowned In Sound review drownedinsound.com. Access date: January 5, 2011.
7. "Bavarian Fruit Bread Info" metacritic.com. Access Date: January 21, 2010.
8. "Mojo Magazine". Bauer. Nov 2001. pp. 86–87. ISBN 0-06-098746-4. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
9. Neumu Review neumu.net. Access date: January 5, 2011.
10. NME Review nme.com. Access date: January 5, 2010.
11. Pitchfork review pitchfork.com. Access date: January 5, 2011.
12. "Q Magazine". Nov 2001. p. 41. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
13. Topic: Bavarian Fruit Bread CD re-issue is missing a song! Archived July 24, 2011, at the Wayback Machine mazzystar.nu. Access date: January 2, 2011.
14. Bavarian Fruit Bread (CD liner notes). Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions. Rough Trade Records. 2001. RTRADECD–031.CS1 maint: others (link)
15. "norwegiancharts.com - Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Bavarian Fruit Bread". Verdens Gang. Hung Medien. Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
16. "Hope Sandoval - Awards : AllMusic". Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2012-10-18.