I am one of those (lazy? obnoxious? - you name it) people who think a good introduction/introductory song is key to a good album. Not that a solid first song automatically makes for a stupendous album - that would be a preposterous claim indeed. Nor is it that an album with a "mmmm-not-so-exciting" start can't ever get better in its next couple tracks (Lykke Li's Youth Novels is a good example that such things can, and do, happen). But, on the whole, a decent opening track really helps, if only to draw your listener in. Bag him/her in your net, if you will.
Now imagine this: A bold oration, on an old, crackling recording, inviting us, from the depths of the past, to collective self-sacrifice; the speech goes on for 45 seconds of gradual tension; finally comes the climax, with these blood-stopping, goosebump-inducing words: "As a nation of free men, we will live forever, or die by suicide." Followed immediately by rapid, nervous drums and rumbling guitars, building towards explosion; a youthful, commanding voice surfaces, in whose strains and determined shouts you can hear disgust, anger, a last-man-standing kind of pride; quickly, again, the voice is interrupted by a large, nearly implacable instrumental break… Whew. Oh, it's not over. There's still much to come in "A More Perfect Union," a wild and whimsical pop-punk romp, 7 minutes long. Holy fuck, you tell yourself. This band - a New Jersey quintet named after one of Shakespeare's most infamously violent tragedies - means business. Meet Titus Andronicus.
You definitely don't hear introductions like this one every day. The album on which you'll find it, The Monitor, is Titus Andronicus' second full-length. It also serves in defense of my initial argument: opening with an absolutely magnificent song, it is a truly superb record.
Both gorgeous and glorious, lyrical and ground-shakingly epic,The Monitor is also ambitious, a quality that's always been rare, but stands out even more sharply against a lot of the lackadaisical, ambiance-driven indie rock I've been listening to in the last few months. You could call it political, too, in a personal, gut-level kind of way: its stretched-out, loosely-structured songs, its heart-gripping choruses, its diverse instrumentation, all carry the instinctive rebellion of a teenager smashing furniture in her room after a shit day at school.
But there's more. The intimate, emotional apocalypse of the The Monitor's lyrics points to something darker, like the defiant, unflinching despair of a man walking onto the highway to face a world that's fucked him over. "I'm at the end of my rope, and I feel like swinging," sings frontman Patrick Stickles on the album's fifth and most beautiful song, "A Pot in which to Piss." Much of the other tracks express utter dejection, alienation, and solitude. Yet he's not quite alone: on the album's second track, the band joins Stickles into a soaring battle song, chanting, "the enemy is everywhere." Clearly, The Monitor is out to wage a war. The New Jersey suburbs and their alcohol-ridden drear are a primary target ("All my asshole buddies are comin' over and we'll be a little too alright"). A certain heart-breaking girl also gets a few gobs spat at her face ("There's only one dream that I keep close, and it's the one of my hands at your throat"). In the end, though, The Monitor is fighting a larger, much tougher war: against cynicism, and our tendency to stifle emotions - both of which Titus Andronicus equate with the slow but certain destruction of our humanity.
"Nothing means anything anymore; everything is less than zero" laments Stickles on the slow-burning intro to "A Pot…" But instead of letting themselves sink into an abyss of defeated misery, Titus Andronicus pick themselves up off the ground, and fight gloom with everything they have - i.e. vibrant, exuberant, rock music - thereby making The Monitor sound uncommonly heroic. "I will not deny my humanity: I will be rolling in it like a pig in feces! 'Cause there's no other integrity, than awaiting the demise of our species" goes one of the many climaxes on track "Richard II." It's been a good while since I've heard a record on which those words manage to sound not only convincing, but damn mesmerizing as well.
Titus Andronicus, The Monitor
XL, 2010
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