The Human Hearts Share ‘(Too Many) Illusions’

Mitch Easter-produced new album, ‘Faith & Credit,’ out Nov. 13

October 12, 2026October 12, 2026 Ron Hart 0 Comments 2026, Dromedary Records, Faith and Credit, Franklin Bruno, Mitch Easter, The Human Hearts

The Human Hearts (Image: Dromedary Records)

Whether you know him from his music or his work as an acclaimed author, poet and critic, Franklin Bruno has been crafting art with words for over three decades.

In recent years, however, Bruno has been busy fronting The Human Hearts, a Queens-and-Brooklyn-based group who is creating some of the smartest, most melodic indie rock on the East Coast.

Recorded and mixed by jangle-pop legend Mitch Easter (R.E.M., Game Theory, Let’s Active) at his own Fidelitorium Studio in North Carolina, The Human Hearts’ fourth album and Dromedary Records debut is perhaps their most musically adventurous work yet with Faith & Credit — a 13-song collection that flows from propulsive, Yo La Tengo/Clean-styled drone (lead single “Still in Error”) and post-punk art-funk (“A Different City for a Different Light”) through polished roots-pop (“Boring Postcards”) and the horn-driven Motown/Mersey stomp of the five-minute title track.

Besides the core band, rounded out by Pete Galub (guitar), Matt Houser (drums and percussion), Brandon Kalber (bass) and his successor Bob Bannister, guests on Faith & Credit include backing singers who sweeten the pot at key moments.

Annie Nero — also a frequent vocal foil to The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn — forms a one-woman chorus on “Illusions,” and chimes in on “A Different City.” Mark Spencer (Son Volt, Laura Cantrell) lays classic country-rock harmony lines over “Boring Postcards” and “The Old Currencies.” Before the final mix by Mitch (who also contributes tambourine and one tasteful guitar part), horns and strings were recorded in Brooklyn by Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, They Might Be Giants). Franklin wrote charts for Steven Levi (trumpet, trombone) and Cheryl Kingman (baritone sax) on “Faith and Credit” and the Stax-influenced “Untimely Beggar,” while the aforementioned string quartet, led by violinist Jean Cook (Waco Brothers, Ida), improvised their parts for “Our Films, Their Films” between sessions for another project.

Rock & Roll Globe is honored to premiere the video for the first single off Faith & Credit, the graceful jangle-pop cut “(Too Many Illusions)” today on the site.

The Human Hearts *Faith & Credit*, Dromedary Records 2026

Here’s what Mr. Bruno had to say about the song.

I wanted the “Illusions” video to contrast with our previous one (for “Still in Error”), which was made up almost entirely of footage of, well, me. So I tried to get out of the way this time, and asked The Mark of Nancy (the production team of Nancy Howell and Mark Lerner), who have worked with my friends Laura Cantrell and Jay Sherman-Godfrey, among others, to interpret the song in their own style. We emailed back and forth about various optical illusions and magic tricks, but basically I trusted them to run with it. Some sections illustrate the lyrics directly but cleverly — I love how they managed “the road isn’t wet in the summer” — and others take off from the general theme. Plus, stop-motion animation, or any kind of “moving picture,” is a way of tricking the eye, so their technique was a perfect fit.

As for writing the song: Besides the specific images, I was thinking about how much of our lives revolve around the effort to separate reality from fiction, whether it’s the lies we’re told by politicians and corporations, or a piece of film footage that might be AI. It’s exhausting, and we all have our limits: when the narrator sings “leave me/this one,” you’re not supposed to be sure which illusion he can’t live without. The music is harder to discuss: the chords and melody fit the world-weary mood, Pete Galub’s jazzy solo comes earlier than you’d expect, and all the choruses are different lengths to keep the listener off-balance. In the studio, I was sheepish about telling Mitch Easter I wanted this song to be “jangly,” but he just said, “Well, if you want the J-word, let’s get out the Vox amp, and the Rickenbacker.” So that’s what we did; the piano, combo organ, and Matt Houser’s percussion all came later. Lastly, our friend Annie Nero, a wonderful singer and bass player who tours with Craig Finn, overdubbed harmonies on the choruses, but during mixing, Mitch turned the same vocal tracks into a choir of angels – also a kind of illusion, but it makes the perfect introduction.

Pre-order Faith & Credit directly from Dromedary Records here.

Stay tuned to Rock & Roll Globe for upcoming tour dates from The Human Hearts.