Rating: NNNN
Sensitive-man indie folk enjoyed a strong run this decade. From Ryan Adams’s Heartbreaker to Elliott Smith prior to his untimely passing to the Sufjan Stevens years to all the Iron and Wines in between, there’s been no shortage of male acoustic melancholy.
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A.A. Bondy wants to take us out on a high note. The Mississippi native leads a spartan group that includes the Felice brothers’ Ian Felice and Greg Farley through 10 woodsy cuts that convey warmth, loneliness and the rural South’s sinister underbelly. The candlelit one-man/one-guitar tunes like On The Moon carry emotional weight but aren’t as interesting as full-band compositions like The Mercy Wheel, where you forget about the regional context and simply enjoy the melodic hooks.
Top track: The Mercy Wheel
A.A. Bondy hits the El Mocambo tonight (Thursday, December 3).
