According to Jim Morrison, the late, lamented front man of The Doors, the point of music, poetry, and even life, such as it is, is to tear down barriers and rebuild things, from an artistic perspective. Someone at The Beatroot Road, and it very well could be its front man Mark Russell, seems to have definitely taken this aesthetic to heart before hitting the lab and laying down the band’s latest LP, Humanimal.

The tunes themselves are refreshing, to say the least. They synonymously explore different parts of the psyche and sound, going for feelings and emotions that are rarely explored musically. “Sombre Reptiles” provides a fairly convincing case in point. The tune is outright primal, if not prehistoric, with its slow, nasty bass line—despite the fact that the tempo on the number is anything but. Somebody comes through chatting Jamaican style, which is a fitting touch for the jungle-esque vibe that Russell, who produced the album and played several instruments on it, must have been going for.

Other times, the message and the mood are far less esoteric, with results no less captivating. “Dance Sinners Dance”, as its title implies, is every bit as artless (which doesn’t mean lacking artistry, by the way) as it is infectious. This time it’s more of a warm island vibe, or what a smile in such surroundings sounds like. There’s a female vocalist making the most of the moment, a saxophone solo that likely sounds even better, and plenty of feel good appeal to make it an oversimplification to say the group shuns pop altogether.

The acoustic guitars on “Arlington”—which are likely credited to Russell—helps set the tone on a more reflective type track. The drums are rich with percussion on this number, which is characteristic of the album as a whole and no surprise, since Russell is credited with playing everything from bongos to the timbale. Just hearing the rhythm is a treat on this offering, notwithstanding the deep musings of the female vocalist’s efforts that are just dripping with effects.

The Beatroot Road does everything it can to eschew the conventional on this outing, which makes for thought-provoking music worthy of consideration as much for its message as it does its grooves.