Fruitcake (album)

Untitled

Fruitcake is the fourth commercial album and the only concept album of the Eraserheads, released in 1996 by Sony BMG Music Philippines Inc. (Formerly BMG Records Pilipinas, Inc.). It is also the official Christmas album and accompanied by a separate storybook, also called Fruitcake, and can be categorized as a musical itself, although, to date, no stage plays have been made based on it.

The release of Fruitcake is preceded by the release of a limited cassette EP version (which was later released as CD), also called Fruitcake. The cassette/cd single version contains three songs, including a different version of the song Fruitcake and another song called Christmas Alphabet which is not found in the official Fruitcake album.

Unlike the other albums, Fruitcake is an all-English one and that not a single word in Tagalog is used which is pretty unusual for a band from the Philippines. The album is also the longest in terms of duration, lasting 73 minutes.

Track listing

1. Fruitcake (5:00)
2. Shadow (2:37)
3. Flat Tire (4:10)
4. Shadow Boxes Accountants (1:02)
5. Gatekeeper (2:43)
6. Old Fashioned Christmas Carol(4:39)
7. Styrosnow (2:15)
8. Trip to Jerusalem (6:15)
9. Shadow Reads The News Today, Oh Boy (0:27)
10. Fruit Fairy (2:49)
11. The Fabulous Baker Boy (5:00)
12. Lord Of The Rhum (4:02)
13. Lightyears (4:18)
14. Christmas Ball (3:19)
15. Mono Virus (4:28)
16. shadow@buttholesurfs.com (1:05)
17. Rise and Shine (3:32)
18. Santa Ain't Comin' No Mo' (2:53)
19. Christmas Party (4:04)
20. Hitchin' A Ride (3:38)
21. Christmas Morning (4:07)
22. Merry Christmas Everybody Happy New Year Too (0:57)

Trivia

1. Prior to the song Fruit Cake, the first song, the album starts with a seemingly gibberish opening theme. But it's actually Merry Christmas Everybody Happy New Year Too played in reverse.
2. Shadow Boxes Accountants, Shadow Reads The News Today, Oh Boy and shadow@buttholesurfs.com are piano instrumentals by Buddy Zabala.
3. Old Fashioned Christmas Carol contains samples of Jingle Bells, Little Drummer Boy, Joy to the World, Silent Night and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
4. Fruit Cake has two variations: the album version and the radio version. The album version has some references about a young girl who went on an adventure alone. These were replaced by lines which appear earlier in the song when release for radio broadcast.
5. In Philippine culture, "Trip to Jerusalem" is a game similar to musical charis, where players dance along to a background music, while spinning around a set of chairs. The numbers of the chairs are fewer than the players. When the music is paused, the players rush to sit, and the one left standing loses and is removed from the game. Every time a player loses, a chair is removed.

External links

• Eraserheads albums at the Eraserheads Database
• Eraserheads Pinoybanda Profile
• The Eraserheads Project