Anthony D’Amato deserves mention in the same cadre of folk rockers that houses names like My Morning Jacket and Bright Eyes. Like the heavy hitters, D’Amato makes music that is at once incisive, gritty, topical, and pretty tough not to enjoy. On his latest record, Cold Snap—out June 17 via New West Records—the singer-songwriter got the opportunity to work with Mike Mogis, a producer well-known for maximizing that orchestral, rough-hewn sound heard on the records of those same heavy hitters. Today, Nerdist is premiering the lyric video for the upcoming album’s anthem, “Blue Blooded.”

On “Blue Blooded,” D’Amato showcases his Jim James voice and Dan Auerbach guitar. Stringed glissandos form an unlikely but salient union with crunchy guitar riffs, rendering “Blue Blooded” catchy and impassioned and well constructed. More than anything, though, it’s succinct. And it’s a song with lines worthy of a lyric video.

In just over three minutes, D’Amato evokes the recklessness of capitalism, especially the selfish iniquities committed toward our earth.

“I showered in the cascades / where I dammed the Willamette. I set fire to the forest / just to light my cigarette.”

And he astutely lays the blame on those controlling the system. With a lyrical brush, D’Amato paints the estrangement of our society: the powers that be against the powers that aren’t and have never been.

“And I won’t stop / no I won’t wait / ‘til I get rich / ‘til I get paid. ‘Til I got roots / that clutch your dirt / to fuck your fields / and gut your worth.”

It’s a well-oiled, perhaps inexorable machine that D’Amato sings of, one steadily rolling toward destruction. With a concise fatalism, the singer damns the blue blooded, those who command from high atop their castles where they never bleed and never bruise.

“Blue Blooded” is both elegantly profound and alarmingly simple, and that’s a fine accomplishment.

IMAGE: Meredith Truax