American Hearts (2007)

His name sounds like a turn-of-the-century household fixative, and indeed A.A. Bondy's little-heard '07 debut (now rereleased on Fat Possum) bears a timeless patina. Built on country-tinged couplets and the occasional harmonica trill, American Hearts sounds like a cowboy's campfire lament — a cowboy with a rucksack full of Dylan bootlegs. Whether the subject is religious faith — ''Rapture (Sweet Rapture)'' — or class-A narcotics (''Vice Rag''), Bondy is a practiced chronicler of the down-but-not-quite-out, to the point where he occasionally slips into cliché. Still, he delivers it all with quiet, heartfelt conviction. B+
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