Artist Discovery Series

A menacing, moody drum roll opens “Mutiny,” the first track on William Elliott Whitmore’s Animals in the Dark, and every time the bass drum kicks in, it sounds like someone walking the plank to his soggy end. When Whitmore revives the classic Bloodhound Gang line, “We don’t need no water / let the motherfucker burn,” in a call-and-response, his crusty blues vocals leading the way, his badass cred is solidified. While most of the album is gospel-tinged and acoustic, none of that attitude is lost; “I wished that I could have punched him in the jaw / And knocked out old Johnny Law,” Whitmore later sings, making it clear this Americana outlaw’s journey is leading anywhere but the Promised Land. Joe Shearer — Joe Shearer