Passion Fruit

Passion Fruit is Tidus Duffer's third studio album. Released on April 24, 2019 (and still in the process of being released), Passion Fruit is an indie electronic album united under the common theme of freedom. Hailed as "the happiest album ever written" by Duffer himself, the album is about being "free in all ways". Produced entirely with non-copyright music. The album contains a tribute to Duffer's cat, Venus, and delves into political commentary with songs such as Undead and X. More lighthearted tracks such as Dragon Fruit, Hope, and Dandelion showcase a different side to Duffer compared to his two previous efforts, Forest Curse and Old Black Shoes. The album echoes other electronic/electronic pop albums sonically such as Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen and In Colour by Jamie xx. Various pop culture references are littered throughout the album like animes such as Bleach and Galaxy Express 999 on *Anime*, Kingdom Hearts and Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom references on *Adventurer*, Sorority Row and Jennifer's Body references on *Hope*, and the mention of books released by Garrett Ochoa such as *STAR FISH SEA* and *The Rod of Protection* on Hope and *Festival* on Dandelion.

## Background and Composition

The album was created with the intent of showcasing "the freest feeling ever" and the epitome of "freedom". After two dark and emotional focused works, Duffer decided to take a more positive, light-hearted, and empowering route for his third effort.

The first two songs written for the album, *X* and the first part to *Undead*, are the most political of the album. With lyrics like "Save the Kids, Save the Palestines" and "More wars, no peace" on X and "We're a warring people still at beef" and "Feel the sick in the world An the chaos" on Undead, Duffer released the most political and socially relevant songs of his career so far. The songs that followed, Dandelion, Hope, and Dragon Fruit, have a more "lighthearted" and "freeing" feeling especially lyrically. Hope, a song written about writing "25 books" and "3 albums" showed off his creative achievements.

On the second part of Undead, Duffer showed his experiences with depression and apathy with lyrics like "Sleeping all day don't care what happens, our world is too depressing". The most emotional song of the album with Never Forever coming as a close second, Passion Fruit not only showed off more of Duffer's lyrical talents (being solo written like his past two previous efforts), but also showed the level of emotions that he could convey as a singer-songwriter.

## Cover Art

The cover art of Passion Fruit, strawberry ice cream in a cone with a blue and pink background was chosen for its lighthearted nature. Both covers were designed to be the front and back covers of the album sans a visible tracklist.

## Album Artwork

Designed as a vinyl record, Passion Fruit contains the lyrics of each song on the album and various images of blue and pink colored skies, painting, and colors on the inside of the left side of the gatefold. On the right, images of ice cream cones litter the page in a pattern. The solid black box on the lyrics page symbolizes darker songs such as *X* and *Undead.*

## Tracklist

1. Venus
2. Florida
3. Toby
4. Dragon Fruit
5. Hope
6. Sacred
7. X
8. Dandelion
9. Undead
10. Never Forever
11. Anime
12. Adventurer

All tracks were written by Tidus Duffer. The songs were produced by a variety of producers including Tobu, Anki, Amidst, KODOMOi, Joakim Karud, and Artificial Music.

## "Venus"

On 'Venus', Tidus describes his love for his cat Venus. Produced by Artificial.Music, he proclaims that the album is dedicated to her and details various life moments with her including her birth in a forest. Various endearing lyrics like "my little babooie" his nickname for her and "you're my soul angel" show how much Venus means to him as a pet.

## "Hope" and Garrett Ochoa's 25+ released books

Hope was written to show off Duffer's achievements as Garrett Ochoa with writing more than 25 publications. The titles that were referenced in the song are:

Festival

STARFISH SEA

The Rod Of Protection

Pisces

Pearl

## Pop Culture References

Passion Fruit contains many pop culture references in many of its songs. Horror movies from 2009 including Jennifer's Body and Sorority Row, Tidus' favorite video game series "Kingdom Hearts", and other references including the 1975 Italian film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom and the French versions of Disney animated films (La Belle Au Bois Dormant, Lilo Et Stitch, Cendrillon).

Venus: Venus (Perry)

Florida: Bon Iver (Band), Urban Outfitters (Retail Store), Venus (Perry)

Toby: Strength tarot card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck

Hope: Festival, STAR FISH SEA, Pearl, The Rod of Protection, Pisces (all by Garrett Ochoa), Jennifer's Body (2009) Sorority Row (2009) American Psycho (2000)

Sacred: THE LAST 9DAYS from Bleach (Manga), Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), Bleach (2004 Anime), Catcher In The Rye (Novel), The Rod of Protection, the Rider-Waite tarot deck, Pisces by Garrett Ochoa, 6arrett, A Collection of Short Stories by Garrett Ochoa, Eeyore from Winnie The Pooh, CONVERSE CHUCK TAYLOR ALL STAR SNEAKER, Disney: Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo (from Cinderella/Cendrillon), La Belle Au Bois Dormant, Cendrillon, Les Aristochats, Lilo et Stitch, Aladdin, Blanche Neige, Peter Pan, Sword in the Stone, The Little Mermaid, Fantasia, Pinocchio

X: Democrats(*They* in they have the right idea of what we should be doing), Free Palestine movement, Forest Curse (Album by Tidus Duffer)

Dandelion: Festival by Garrett Ochoa

Undead: Guantanamo Bay, Hermitdom (a song by Tidus Duffer),

Anime: Bleach, Inuyasha, One Piece, Soul Eater, Galaxy Express 999, D Gray Man, Sweater Weather (a song by The Neighbourhood), Sailor Moon, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Studio Ghibli (film studio), Cute High Earth Defense Club Happy Kiss!, Isekai (genre)

Adventurer: Claudio (Character), Salo (the Italian Social Republic), and the Ritual scene from 1975 Italian film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Christopher Columbus, Mississippi River, the Eiffel Tower, The Aristocats, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Big Ben from Neverland (Kingdom Hearts World), Kingdom Hearts (Series), Final Fantasy (Series), Mabinogi (MMO), The Epilogue and Secret Endings from Kingdom Hearts 3, Passion Fruit (Album Cover), Paramore (Band) and Brand New Eyes (Album by Paramore)

## "Anime"

Written by Tidus Duffer and Produced by 2 and Amidst, Anime is about one of Tidus Duffer's favorite hobbies. Beginning with an ambient and euphoric-like interlude, Tidus Duffer sings about staying inside "forever" and watching anime with him. The actual song (produced by Amidst) shows a campy and vivacious side to Duffer. With various Anime references (Bleach, Galaxy Express 999, Cute High Earth Defense Club Happy Kiss!, etc.) and an animated production, the album is a brighter side to Passion Fruit compared to darker, edgier tracks such as Undead and X.