A soft susurrus of breath cedes to the sound of fingers sliding over nylon guitar strings on “Holy Equation,” the opening track of Anna Tivel’s Animal Poem. “I’m waking up early, I’m bussing the tables/This whole thing is really a hopeless equation,” she sings before a mournful saxophone shimmers atop the formica. On the folk singer’s seventh studio album, her songs are more indictment than invitation: Witness the world we’ve made, and let your revulsion move you.

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