And so the career of the Archers of Loaf flickerfades as the band punches out with White Trash Heroes. Throughout their lifespan the Archers continually dodged and parried the aggressive epee of critical classification in a flurry of skewed guitar and backwards rhythms. White Trash Heroes completes the mutation as the final crop presented here yields sounds nocturnal, distant, introspective, haunted, and vampired of tone.

The most conspicuous additions to the Archers sonic vocabulary are keyboard adjectives that modify the washing fuzz-jangle guitar (which follows the instructions on the bottle: "distort, riff, repeat.") with Nintendo hooks on "Fashion Bleeds," and propels "Dead Red Eyes" and the title track with garage- sale symphonics. Some bolder experiments, such as the snake- charmer guitar clashing with talk-box vox on "One Slight Wrong Move," the drunken pub sing- along on "After The Last Laugh," and the put- your- hands- on- your- knees- and- shake- that- healthy- booty keys on "Smokers In Love," are surprising opposite field RBIs (obligatory post- McGwire baseball euphemism). However, "Banging On A Dead Drum," a noisy dud, would have been better left in the rehearsal spaces of Research Triangle, NC.

There's an overall air of Southernness on White Trash Heroes that goes beyond the Foxworthy- esque title. Empty ante-bellum chambers, creaky porches flaking restoration paint, bare lightbulbs from wires, and moonlight over tobacco and crickets resonates in Matt Gentling's head- dunking bass notes and Eric Johnson's searing guitar picking. Eric Bachmann sings in a discovered Southern drawl, sounding like he stumbled into a plantation studio to record "Slick Trick and Bright Lights" after a stroll under pecan trees, sucking down juleps.

Relaxed and veteran, White Trash Heroes points the Archers in a new direction without ever completely getting there. It's frustrating, considering that this record is their swan song. So, enjoy these final sounds, as they recline the seats, jaded, and kick up dust into twilight.

-Brent DiCrescenzo