Leave the Bones' 'Heart On My Sleeve' is a dusty Americana rallying cry

There's a harder edge to Leave the Bones on 'Heart On My Sleeve' that suits Jeremy Bogen beautifully. Over the years, the Costa Rica-based songwriter has built the project around the kind of folk and Americana that feels truly lived-in, but this time the introspection comes with its fists up. 'Heart On My Sleeve' is still grounded in his instinct for honest storytelling, yet there's more swagger in the delivery and a much clearer sense of resistance.

He's described the track as having "an audience of one", but its emotional reach is much wider than that. At its centre is the idea of standing your ground against whatever has become toxic, dangerous or corrosive in your life. The song turns vulnerability into armour without pretending the scars underneath have completely disappeared.

The imagery reaches back into the oldest mythology of American roots music, invoking crossroads, bargains and the devil, but the frontman uses those symbols as a framework for something more personal as it plays. His central challenge of effectively asking anyone taking aim at him to look properly at the heart already exposed turns openness into a form of defiance.

And as the arrangement strips away, he's left with his voice and an old Telecaster, singing about the people and places that shaped him. But instead of diminishing the track's bravado, the moment gives it context by giving it a swagger that could have only come from experience.

In all, 'Heart On My Sleeve' is an important step for Leave the Bones. Jeremy Bogen is still writing with the directness and humility he associates with folk songwriting, but now there's fire alongside the reflection.