Titus Andronicus The Monitor (Merok)
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Sometimes, bands make it easy for you: I'm predisposed to love New Jersey quintet Titus Andronicus from the off. They called their debut The Airing of Grievances in tribute to the gloriously unhinged Frank Costanza's alternative seasonal holiday on the peerless Seinfeld. They list Galaxie 500, Neutral Milk Hotel and Weezer as key influences on their MySpace page. And the opening track on The Monitor, their second LP, is an Abraham Lincoln-sampling, Hüsker Dü-aping tune called 'A More Perfect Union' which finds singer Patrick Stickles howling "No, I never wanted to change the world, but I'm looking for a new New Jersey because tramps like us, baby, we were born to die", thus invoking Tomiak über?-heroes Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen in a single sentence. Yep, probably gonna enjoy these guys.
Whilst unabashed in their love for Brooooooce, Titus Andronicus are as deliriously OTT as the aforementioned Mr Costanza, quite unlike fellow NJ Springsteenophiles The Gaslight Anthem, a band who exude utter sincerity in their Home State hero-worship. And The Monitor really is pretty nuts - for starters, it’s an album loosely based around the American Civil War (to the extent that any record containing a track entitled 'Theme From "Cheers"’ can faithfully chronicle the end of the Confederacy.)
The Monitor is a vast, sprawling thing, peppered with spoken word extracts penned by some of 19th century America's major players which over the course of more than an hour barely pauses for breath, counting anguished teenage poetry, raucous Poguesian broadsides and screeching guitar solos amongst its constituent components. Even the midpoint interlude 'A Pot In Which To Piss' eventually emerges from a reverb-soaked drone-rock opening to blossom into a nine-minute 'Jungleland' style opus.
You might not emerge from The Monitor any clearer about the origins of the Union, but its still one hell of a ride.
Artists in this article: Titus Andronicus
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