A.A. Bondy, New(ish) Album

I love this man dearly. I really do. I still don't know if he's TRYING to look like Woody Guthrie or not though.

It was several months ago that I found A.A. Bondy's first album American Hearts. I'd like to say I loved him from the very first pluck and croak, but to be honest I was not impressed at the time with that album and I am not impressed now. That's not to say it wasn't good: it just wasn't very original, and it wasn't all that captivating. Ya, he sounded like Bob Dylan. More accurately, he sounded like someone that sounded like Bob Dylan, not like Dylan himself. Or maybe like Dylan without the ambition.
I soon forgot the name and actually forgot I'd ever even heard him, until the day I discovered "When The Devils Loose", the title track of his newly released CD.
Woah.
The track was catchy, but haunting. It carried on like a twisted slow dance tune. It's from another world, another time. The mentality of it's central character brings to mind the dust bowl and the great depression, spinning a story about a man who is aware of tragedy but unwilling to carry it.

He is something different from his previous self; fleshed out, denser, something outside of the Bob Dylan Guarantee. His previous album found it's moments of charm with it's happiest songs, like "Lovers Waltz" and "Vice Rag," but When The Devil's Loose is an entire new world. The tracks that get under your skin will do so with stealth and grace, like a tiny musical ninja. Tracks like "Mightiest of Guns" and "Oh the Vampyre" will bury themselves in your subconscious and come to you on rainy days. "When the Devil's Loose" will remind you of dangers of mortality. "The Mercy Wheel" and "I Can See the Pines Are Dancing" Are the closest things to pick-me-ups on the album, The former being lyrically enticing and the latter melodically so. They will heal you, remind you that there is in this world a time to be happy and a time to be fearless.

All the tracks echo faintly, giving them an etheral feel, and the inclusion of piano, violin, heavier drums, electric guitar and stronger vocals, all well distributed throughout the album (sparcly so on American Hearts) give A.A. Bondy the power to drive emotions and shift opinions.
Bravo.

(I cannot imagine why this links to where it does...Sorry.)