Destined to reside next to a-ha atop the iTunes libraries of discerning music fans, A.A. Bondy writes hard-bitten songs that dwell on the way the haunted and lovelorn can't quite escape the devil's clutches. But there's no covering up the delicate beauty that powers the former Verbena frontman's solo records.
When the Devil's Loose is ragged all over, most notably in its intimate garage-band production, but there's a sugary sparkle to songs like "Mightiest of Guns." For all its fatalistic, even apocalyptic imagery — "the stars are falling down like burning rain," "take the world and burn it in a spoon" — Bondy can't help but give "Mightiest of Guns" the sort of acoustic-guitar-fueled gentility usually reserved for a 4-year-old's bedtime. Bondy may survey a cruel universe in which madness and weaponry reign, but he performs the instrumental equivalent of sticking a daisy in a rifle. If "Mightiest of Guns" is any indication, it belongs there anyway.
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