Elizabeth Cook didn't quite know what she was doing. But she knew there were songs, and they had to get out. Six even years since her critically acclaimed Welder, as well as much personal tumult, there were songs that needed to be born. From Dexter Green's (also the album's producer) opening electric guitar, equal parts foreboding and fraught, Exodus of Venus hurls a churlish witness to erotic upheaval and the drives that subsume our best notions. Exodus of Venus is an exhortation of sexual surrender that pushes past the brink of reason. For fans of the Florida-born and raised Cook, a Grand Ole Opry regular, SiriusXM Outlaw Country hostess and David Letterman favorite, Exodus of Venus will be something of a shock. If she maintains the tang of her drawl, what emerges beyond Cook's always vibrant and vivid sense of detail is a song cycle soaked in turpentine, musk and honey.