The Monitor

So what do we have here then? In short it is a concept album using the American Civil War as an extended metaphor for a young man's journey away from his ancestral home in New Jersey to his new home in Boston, combined with a sort of half hearted homage to Bruce Springsteen. It doesn't sound very promising does it? Amazingly then it is all the more surprising that "The Monitor" by Titus Andronicus largely works and on times works brilliantly. Moreover a band which take their name from a minor Shakespearean tragedy turn out to be a high voltage, messy, punk American bar band who have recorded in the words of Drowned in Sound "just a stupendous collection of songs; one that demands to be listened to as loudly as you can possibly get away with". The Monitor is of course the great American civil war iron clad battleship that fought to a standstill its Confederate equivalent CSS Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads. It is no great shock then to find a epic 14 minute long ode to said battle on this album which in its ninth minute introduces the bagpipes! Let us forget the concept for now and pose the key question what's the music like? The album starts with someone quoting Abraham Lincoln and then "A more perfect union" erupts. Squalls of feedback breach into a huge drum beat/riff which would put the Gaslight Anthem to shame and singer Patrick Stickles announcing that "I never wanted to change the world, I'm not looking for a new New Jersey / But tramps like us / Baby we were born to die". Indeed the current obsession of young American bands with the Boss knows no bounds except in this case its Bruce's nasty nephews at happy hour with ASBOs! At about 4 minute 10 seconds it seems to break into a different song that could be the Dropkick Murphys. Just hear it.

Second song "Titus Andronicus forever" is a 2 minute thrash out essentially revolving around a mental guitar solo and the band screaming the "enemy is everywhere". "Richard II" subtitled with some lack of brevity (Or Extraordinary Popular Dimensions And The Madness Of Crowds (Responsible Hate Anthem) is one of the greatest songs the Pogues never recorded and will lead to the most raucous live shows any side of the Atlantic. "A pot in which to p" is another 9 minute epic which contains within its boundaries just about the whole history of rock n roll and what I detect to be a couple of new chords! The albums epic highlight is "Fore Score and Seven" starting slowly with a Sickles offering a range of unprintable expletives. It has a bigger kick than a donkey with a migraine and turns into total rock 'n'roll mayhem where at one time Stickles announces that "We're all depraved and disgusting, I spew like a fountain,/And debased, defaced, disgraced and destroyed,/Most of all disappointed" I say atop this mountain".

In this setting "Theme from Cheers" is actually quite a nice if rather anarchic pop song and for good measure why not reprise "Titus Andronicus forever" again, call it "And ever", and off we go again "The enemy is everywhere"...... Finally "To friends old and new" represents a lovely change of pace, a slow building boozy ballad which hangs on a huge guitar solo. This album is work of a band whose motto is the title of this review. Titus Andronicus are a rude, raw rock band who will be lucky to ever sell a record and that would be a little Shakespearian tragedy in its own right (the comparisons with the Replacements in this regard are spooky) "The Monitor" is hugely inventive, lyrically funny and often literate, partly Irish in feel with a splash of Conor Oberst and more often than not completely scabrous. Spin has called it "Born to Run's drunk stepchild on a epic spree". Wish I thought of that one.

History alert! The USS Monitor was the US Navy's first ironclad warship and fought the similarly-clad CSS Virginia to a draw at the Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War. Titus Andronicus is in turn Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy themed on Roman revenge.

Last year, Titus Andronicus the band snuck out The Airing of Grievances, an impressively abrasive garage-country-punk cacophony that recalled Cursive battling Bright Eyes's Desaparecidos project for supremacy. Their sophomore album The Monitor builds on that patented racket substantially, casually courting the Civil War by means of a concept whilst framing it against modern New Jersey living.

Not content, The Monitor sprawls decadently across 65 minutes, opening with a reading of Abraham Lincoln and later one of the then president of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis. Fourteen (14!) of these minutes are taken to digest "The Battle Of Hampton Roads" itself, a huge accomplishment of a track that includes an incongruous yet marvellously welcome bagpipe solo. Earlier, "...And Ever" even thinks to throw in a similarly pleasing E-Street sax chorus. Elsewhere, the Boss himself gets a name-check and more than a nod on "A More Perfect Union" with this choice deformation: "Tramps like us, baby, we were born to die."

Furthermore, The Monitor houses innumerable guest appearances including contributions by the likes of Vivian Girls and Craig Finn of The Hold Steady. The downtempo duet that Jenn Wassner of alt-folk outfit Wye Oak provides on "To Old Friends And New" is particularly memorable set against militaristic drumming. Suffice it to say that dumb punk-rock this is not.

The Monitor could easily have been an indulgent mess, yet Patrick Stickles' vocal vitriol ties the project together just as it did on the even more ramshackle debut. His tumbling rhythm lends the endeavour real weight, his variety more so. It's ironic then that nihilistic staples such as "the enemy is everywhere" and "you will always be a loser" are repeated obsessively until they land like smashing your head against the wall. However, these statements aren't aimless nor uncreative. Each instance increases in dramatic tension. Each builds to well-worked releases suggesting further schooling in Conor Oberst.

The quiet bridge in "No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future" rides along on frenetic hi-hat, "Richard II" is full of bouncing energy, clashing guitar edges and near-danceable, Pogues-like shenanigans. The galloping drums in "A Pot In Which To ****" match the distant "whoa, oh, ohs" to perfection as a reverbed riff takes centre stage. Like elsewhere, they then lurch back into piano-led, E-Street bar-room punk.

Sufficiently ragged throughout, The Monitor's rough edges provide its successes. Where backing "whoa, oh, oh, oohs" could have upset the raucous mix, raw interjections of guitar provide the necessary balance. Stickles' drunken Irish holler compliments The Monitor magnificently where a lesser voice could have veered it towards more plodding material. Over 65 minutes, inevitably there are candidates for exclusion on the basis of common economy, but surprisingly few jump out. Each guitar solo is full of adrenalin-soaked necessity, each reprised chorus full of alcohol-fuelled debauchery.

Titus Andronicus are simultaneously angry and fun and it makes them compelling listening. The Monitor is loose, lengthy and dishevelled. Together, they make an invincible statement of fear and awe.

Titus Andronicus are a band that are literally steeped in history. Their name, of course, comes from the title of William Shakespeare's most brutal & bloodthirsty play, the title of their debut 2008 album 'The Airing of Grievances' was named after a famous quote from T.V sitcom royalty Seinfeld (not really history but I had to get a mention of Seinfeld in there somewhere) and now in 2010 they have gone and released a 65-minute long album loosely based upon the (once again, extremely bloody) US Civil War. Do you think they are trying to tell us something?.

If you are a new-comer to this glorious New Jersey alt-rock band then all this talk of bloodthirst and brutallity will certainly go some way to preparing you for the intense gut-wrenching experience listening to this group can sometimes incur. For example, take opener 'A More Perfect Union' which starts with a quick monolouge (by Okey Canfield Chenoweth) of 'Abraham Lincoln's address to the Young Men's Lyeeum of Springfield, before flooding into a Replacements-esque punk rock song in which singer Patrick Stickles talks of the love he feels for his hometown (indeed, within the first 2 minutes he manages to mis-quote Bruce Springsteen) and the whole 6 & a half minute length is full of blistering percussion and heartfelt vocals. This opening song really sets the tone for the rest of the record.........

...which is both a blessing and a curse. The template set out by that initial 6 minute blast is so rigidly stuck to that at times the long length of the album can be a detriment to the overall effect, with some songs seamlessly leading into the next meaning some of the (numourous) moments of greatness can be lost on first listen. This is a problem that is easily overcome by repeated listens when songs such as 'No Future Part 3' (parts 1 & 2 can be found on the debut incidently), 'Four Score And Seven' and 'The Battle Of Hampton Roads' seemingly jumping out of the stereo and demanding your attention. Also, the clever use of further monolouges (Craig Finn as Walt Whitman!!!) work to puncture the record at intermittable moments.

The scale of the album cannot be underestimated with the group throwing absolutely everything at the wall (10 minutes into 'The Battle Of Hampton Roads' they decide to have a bagpipe solo!) and keeping what works. This method of song writing is to commended and it is extremly nice to see a band that arn't afraid to put their collective head on the block in return for creativity & art's sake.

I would hope that in the future they will see fit to try and change the template a little and move themselves into some new areas, but all that can wait for the future and right now this is as good a second album as we could have expected (in fact it surpasses most of my expectations).

For fans of The Clash, The Pogues, The Replacements and Arcade Fire, my suspicions are that this will feature on many a 'best of 2010' poll come the end of the year and most deserving of such accolades it is.