Finally. After seven years since their last album, the Swingin' Utters have a new full-length album out. What have they been up to since? Well, they've done a few shows here and there; they went on to do awesome side project bands like Filthy Thieving Bastards, the Re-Volts, and Druglords of the Avenues; and they got Jack Dalrymple of One Man Army and Dead to Me fame to join their band. And now they finally gave us this: Here, Under Protest.

Now, this is quite the different album from most of their albums before this. This time around, it felt as though the main writting force behind the band (Johnny Bonnel and Darius Koski) went for more of the sound that you would find in Filthy Thieving Bastards. For those that haven't listened to Filthy Thieving Bastards, the sound is very country, folk, and rock inspired, and more melodic. And that's what a majority of this album feels like. And it's not a bad thing.

The band has slowed down a bit with this one, except for on "(You've Got To) Give It All to the Man", but it still is something you'd expect from them. If anything, it feels like this could have been more of a followup to their self titled album, which was released back in 2000. On this one, Koski loses the growl on the songs he does lead vocals on. And guess who finally gets to sing on this album? That's right. Jack Dalrymple! Great to hear his voice again, even it's the final track on the album.

When I first listened to the album, I almost thought the best tracks were the ones that they released on the two 7"s before this. The songs are "Brand New Lungs", "Lepers, Thieves and Whores", "Taking the Long Way", and "Effortless Amnesiac". But after a few listens, I was wrong. If you love the Utters, especially when they have that country/folk influence in their songs, this album is for you. The wait was totally worth it.