album of the week: 1.2

Titus Andronicus
Local Business
(2012)

why you'll love it:  Lengthy, rousing, energy packed power ballads with a DIY charm
why you'll hate it:  The execution doesn't exactly live up to the ambition.

I'll take the blame for this one.  I don't know what I'm talking about.  I won't say "I don't get it."  because people use that phrase to blame the artist.  I'm really happy to see a band from my home of New Jersey get a lot of positive attention, but I don't really know what Titus Andronicus is all about.  I've listened to The Monitor (2010).  I appreciate its conceptual ambitions, but can't get into anything it actually does.  Don't like the mixing.  I thought the songs dragged.  Don't really catch anything memorable about the lyrics.  It's probably me overlooking something.  

Local Business isn't faring much better with me either.  I think the songs are a bit snappier.  There are a few rousing moments, but somehow the production is even worse.  For songs that long, they don't do enough things to keep it interesting and not repetitive.  Also, because almost every song tries to be this big showstopper, they all fight for the spotlight; and by the end of the album, nothing really shined.

I hope this band finds more success, because if they can get some real production, and studio musicians to back them, they can put out a huuuge rock album where every song sounds different (even if it is little stuff like "oh this is the one with the sax solo, this one has a mandolin") and there is a nice full range of sounds.  Titus Andronicus sounds like a rowdy pub band on this album, which is cool, but the songs overstay their welcome.  I'd rather see them either go the Gogol Bordello route, and carve out their own orgcore punk niche into that scene, or trim the fat on their songs and really go for the throat.  

Where they stand now is probably just fine though, and it's more than likely I'm the out of touch idiot.