Reviews

There is only one complicated element to William Elliott Whitmore's Animals in the Dark; the voice. Somewhere between the torn-up scruff of Tom Waits and the touching soulfulness of Otis Redding falls Whitmore, and that is no exaggeration. The words and the music presented here are simple, but the delivery is not and it's the subtle nuances in the vocals that make this record worth so many repeated listens.

Whitmore's uncomplicated songs and words are rendered with amazing beauty here courtesy of Luke Tweedy's phenomenal engineering job. It's hard to capture every facet of a unique voice and then use the studio to enhance those sounds, but Tweedy has accomplished some amazing things with this recording; Whitmore sounds so damn close throughout the entire album! I can hear him breathe inward and I can hear him strain a word for effect and I can always detect the slight edges on his voice. All of these nuances might have gone unnoticed had the record been recorded with someone else, but here they are captured and pushed to the front for all to hear.

Whitmore's style is certainly along the lines of folk and indie with just a touch of experimentalism. Think of the more accessible materials put out by the aforementioned Waits...or someone like Leonard Cohen without such a literary approach...maybe Dylan during the Time Out of Mind-era but with more acoustic guitars. All in all, not bad company.

The great thing is that these are not songs to enlighten; these are songs to sing along to. Many times, a great writer with a so-so voice (Cohen is certainly one of these) has to turn to elaborate portraits and craft to create art. And oftentimes, this art turns out more like literature than music. With Whitmore, it's the other way around. The man's voice is so striking in its powerful vulnerability that sophisticated and complex turns of phrase aren't needed; I believe him immediately because it sounds so true and honest and it's this quality that ultimately makes the album a huge success. Just look to tracks like "Mutiny," with its pounding drums; I'm pretty convinced he was there on that ship. Or "There's Hope for You," where Whitmore convinces the listener that things will turn out alright for everyone else...except himself. And of course, "A Good Day to Die," which covers exactly what the title suggests.

So, I guess after all this praise, it's time for the few small grievances have. I'm not fond of "Johnny Law"; there are enough songs about cops abusing their power out there already and some of them are better than this one. I also want to hear him expand on the occasional uses of distortion and other instrumentation; with a bit more vision, his next record will almost surely surpass the high standard set by this one. But these are such small complaints. Ultimately, what you've got here is simple music sung by a simple man with a complicated voice. Definitely worth checking out.