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| Titus Andronicus The Most Lamentable Tragedy
why you'll love it: great concept, high ambition
why you'll hate it: Too much downtime, loses the plot at the end
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The Most Lamentable Tradgedy, with all its stumbles, comes off as destiny for Titus Andronicus. Not only thematically (with the title and continuation of their "No Future" series of songs.) This is logically where Patrick Stickles would find himself, as a songwriter/performer who is very open about his depression and other mental disorders. He confronts his issues head on with this album. While concept albums are no stranger to +@ (their biggest claim to fame is their 2010 Civil War epic, The Monitor), they've broken through to another plateau of production that does justice to their big-band compositions and layered structure.
This is a 90 minute plus album with 29 tracks. It's as long as most films. Without context, this album sounds like a total mess. There are multiple tracks on here that are just one sustained note, or even complete silence. These aren't just brief transitions either, and they're every fifth or sixth track. Before anything, Titus Andronicus is a rowdy mic-swinging bar room brawl style punk band; and these tracks appear to serve no purpose other than to kill all the energy drummed up. It's a lot of energy too! Weak production has plagued +@ their whole disgography, and this is the first album that seems to feel full and clear.
The answer to why these tracks exist lie in the structure of the album. This is a five act story about a doppleganger (or alternate personality) that awakens in the mind of a severely depressed individual. Once you lay out the tracks in the five act structure, you'll notice these "energy-sapping" tracks all serve as transitions from one act to another. Could they have been shorter or more cleverly woven into the surrounding songs? Fuck yeah they could have. It would have made for a better album too! But stepping back and seeing the full picture allowed me to respect the album more, or at least see the method within the madness. Which brings us back to that amazing first and second act structure.
Act one is about frustrated lonely depression. The songs are high-energy, but are about the lowest of low spirits. An original song called "I Lost My Mind", quickly shifts into a wild punk song called "Look Alive". Then a transition into act two (about a more social but aggressive multiple personality): a wild punk song called "Lookalike", a cover song called "I Lost My Mind", and series of free wheeling high-energy songs with a much more socially optimistic tone, finally concluding with "More Perfect Union".
Right there - those 45 minutes, even with a couple weird transitionary tracks, makes a perfectly laid out album. The songs themselves are fun and rocking, even if you really aren't into the lyrics. The only complaint really is that the Daniel Johnston song "I Lost My Mind" makes the earlier +@ cut seem poor by comparison. If you were to end The Most Lamentable Tragedy right here at these first two acts, I'd probably be talking about my favorite album of the year right now. There are a few good songs to come, but from here on out, things get... messy.
One note transitions become replaced by actual songs in acts three and four; which sounds like an improvement, but I find them to be annoying. Maybe to some, "Sun Salutation" is an interesting deep cut of a hymn, but as someone who served 13 years in Catholic school, it just brings up boring memories of sit-stand-kneel. The aggressive "(S)HE SAID / (S)HE SAID" and its reprise, "Funny Feeling" take up the bulk of act three. I assume this is about the more socially active personality having too much power or aggression, and it affecting others in relationships... the thread is starting to get lost on me here. Nevertheless, this is followed by one of the best songs of the album, "Fatal Flaw" It doesn't do anything different than the swashbuckling first two acts, but ends up summing up the feel and concepts of this album into one song incredibly well. "Fatal Flaw" is usually the song I share when telling people about this album.
Act four feels like a complete detour. I've lost the story by now entirely. Despite that, "Come on, Siobhán" is fun as all get-out. It's maybe too good. Those string harmonies give me serious deja-vu. This has to be a cover, right? It's so familiar! It's already in the company of covers. A so-so rendition if The Pogues' "A Pair of Brown Eyes" follows, as well as... "Auld Lang Syne"? Yes, that song people sing at New Years Eve. Your guess is as good as mine as to why it's here. The most interesting moment of this strange and pointless 4th act of covers (?) is when +@ covers themselves! "I'm Going Insane" is a reprise of "Titus Andronicus vs. The Absurd Universe" off their previous LP.
Even with respect to the ideas that went into this album, the final act is a total trainwreck to me. Most of the songs on it are the kind of low-production aching ballads the band was known for in their first two albums. If you're way into their old stuff, you may dig it, but I just find it to be an absolute chore to sit through. The only redeeming moment of act five to me is "Into The Void". Where its fits into the big story of The Most Lamentable Tragedy, I have no idea; but it's at least one last ass-kicker of a song.
It's a shame that an album that starts so strong goes off the rails in the last two acts. In a strange way, it's appropriate for the content. The mind is complicated. It's easy to lose oneself. Also, they say it right in the title, this is a tragedy! These faults help the album's theme. As turned around as the story gets, it still comes off as deliberate. This album is hard to digest and understand in one chunk. Maybe these acts should have been instead released independently as 5 EPs over the year. Despite all the "what could have been"s, this album is going to be in my 2015 top ten, for sure. If it were only those first two acts, my number one FOOOOOR SURE! But I have to accept it as a whole. I wish this album was more succinct with their transitions. I wish they didn't detour into cover-ville, and I wish they could have found a more listenable way to present a tragic ending. Nevertheless, it's Titus Andronicus' shining moment, and they should be applauded for it.
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