The Human Hearts

• Another [Shrimper, 2012] A-
• Day of the Tiles [self-released EP, 2020] A
• Viable [Open Boat, 2023] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Another [Shrimper, 2012]
A John Darnielle sideman and philosophy Ph.D. who wrote a 33 1/3 on Elvis C.'s Armed Forces, Franklin Bruno knows pop from the beginning--19th-century sheet music. He delivers these songs with a brass-tacks brio that recalls the songsmith-sung demos on a Cole Porter comp and also plays all keyboards and most guitars. Love the Costello-without-shame opener and the title tune that's all quarter-of-three Sinatra. But my avorites on this consistently and straightforwardly songful album are the rocking "Cheap Sunglasses," about the girlfriend he saw through, and the rhumbaing "Not Just When We Kiss," about the one he stuck with. It's not Brad Paisley's "Then." But it belongs on the same mixtape. A-

Day of the Tiles [self-released EP, 2020]
It's somehow been eight years since philosopher-musicologist, pianist-guitarist, and sometime Mountain Goat Franklin Bruno released his band debut Another, and too many as well since I saw them debut new songs about money--songs I doubt are on a six-song EP that begins "Dialectics/Doesn't break bricks" because I couldn't possibly have forgotten "Is it wrong to write rhymes when my rhymes right no wrongs?" or "The system isn't broken/It works the way it's made/They know that you can't change it/As long as they can keep you/Feeling sad and afraid." Delivered in an articulate baritone that hits the notes without disrespecting its conversational lifestyle, both songs match anything new I've heard all year that isn't by Run the Jewels or Lil Baby, with the other four merely strong, catchy, and smart. As a public service I've Googled "Granges-sur-Salvan" (site of a 1994 mass murder/suicide) and "Day of the Tiles" soi-même (the June 7, 1788, riot some consider the true beginning of the French Revolution). So don't say I didn't warn you. A

Viable [Open Boat, 2023]
Musically, 64-year-old frontman-pianist-songsmith-Ph.D-Bandcamper Franklin Bruno will never be any kind of virtuoso or heartthrob. Formally sapient and technically accomplished enough never to blow a note of simple yet well-honed melodies he has the good sense to design as mere albeit catchy tunes, he never misses a well-chosen note as a singer. But for all that there's something in his plain, conversational timbre that leaves the pursuit of anything that could be called beautiful to the likes of Jenny Toomey, the indie frontperson turned Ford Foundation honcho who graces several of these tracks. From the flag pin he refuses to wear over his heart to the promos he requests you save from the sell pile, Bruno writes socially conscious although not therefore ideological songs, which means he's a very smart guy who sees the world the way I and I bet you do. For the cherry on top he covers an Everly Brothers obscurity called "June Is as Cold as December." And before you go all global warming on him, be aware that June is actually just the prettiest girl in town. A-