Word: songfulness
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...imply, their lo-fi punk rock sound abounds with vocal violence and instrumental incursions. The band’s 2008 debut album, “The Airing of Grievances,” was a blast of anger and furious rock infused with a surprising amount of humor. Lyrics and song titles, as well as the album’s title referencing the “Seinfeld” holiday of “Festivus,” were a foundation for the album’s unrelenting energy. “The Monitor” is very much a continuation...
...narrative, Titus Andronicus focus most on maintaining the anti-suburban message of their debut, describing their irreverent, sometimes self-loathing, enthusiasm for their roots. On “Theme From ‘Cheers,’” this irreverence takes the form of a drinking song dealing with youthful drowning of sorrows and building of friendships with alcohol and cigarettes. Other times, the band deals with their inability to escape personal repugnance, such as when they chant the mantra of “You will always be a loser” in “No Future...
...Andornicus’ native New Jersey into the American unknown. Cynically invoking Springsteen, he screams, “I’m looking for a new New Jersey / Cause tramps like us / Baby we were born to die.” Driving guitar riffs and drum beats move the song forward, as the song builds to a climaxing chorus. Lyrics continuously question the anxiety and angst of Stickles’ view of America, leading into the chants of “The enemy is everywhere” on the punk rock of the following transitional song, “Titus...
While most songs are similarly aggressive, “Four Score and Seven” proceeds at a much slower pace. Over sparse guitar and cello, Sickles cries out against the divisions the narrator of the album encounters—“This is a war we can’t win / After 10,000 years it’s still us against them.” The song slowly crescendos into a restrained chorus followed by a battered-sounding yet triumphant brass band and an exultant guitar solo, as Sickles continues to scream “It?...
...album’s 14-minute long closing song, “The Battle of Hampton Road,” is named after the Civil War clash between the Monitor and the Merrimack, but actually it focuses mainly on 20th Century concerns. Sickles proclaims “I’m destroying everything that would make me like Bruce Springsteen / So I’m going back to New Jersey / I do believe they’ve had enough of me.” By directly disavowing this connection, Titus Andronicus only strengthen it, making this album a statement about...