(Anti-)

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"Let the motherfucker burn" is as good an epitaph - and epithet - as any for the legacy of the nightmarish, now-departed Bush Administration, and William Elliott Whitmore gets Animals in the Dark off to a pounding start by shouting that rousing incantation on opener "Mutiny." It's clear it's the Ship of State he's referring to. Whether applying religious imagery to contemporary political or economic woes ("Hell or High Water') or being confessional about career frustrations ("Lifetime Underground"), he commands attention on his fourth album.

Whitmore sounds like a Southern gospel- and folk-influenced country-soul-blues singer - Malcolm Holcombe, Jesse Winchester, Eddie Hinton - and his gritty, growling voice twists and lengthens vowels as if wrestling with them. His acoustic guitar and banjo work is deft and forceful. But he and co-producer Luke Tweedy know how to use some rock instrumentation to kick the dust off Americana - the organ lights up the slowly simmering "There's Hope For You" and makes it a rocker.

Standout Tracks: "Mutiny," "There's Hope For You" STEVEN ROSEN