Fatal Flaws
Titus Andronicus: TMLT (7/10)
Patrick Stickles is a madman. The guy has sounded pretty enraged throughout his career, and many people have written him off because of it. While this passion and insanity has drew some away from the punk band's efforts, it has also been perhaps the band's biggest strength in many peoples' opinion. The Monitor showed Stickles calling America on its shit, and his commanding, powerful voice was the perfect voice to have everybody truly listening. These "rants" were topped off with hard hitting guitar and drum riffs that really made for an anthemic album. This album was extremely ambitious because of its concept, but also because of its length. The album clocked in over an hour, and it featured only ten tracks. Punk albums can be long, but sometimes Titus Andronicus just really runs with it, and I guess that can just feel stale after a while. Anyway, this ambition seems to have returned on their newest album. Local Business was a solid effort, but it was shorter and less gritty than its predecessor. The Most Lamentable Tragedy, however, is longer than both of these records. Clocking in around 93 minutes long, this album really does feel like a story. There are a lot of layers to it, and it is honestly pretty hard to interpret. The basic concept revolves around a main character who has a mental disorder, and the album kind of just takes you through this person's various states of mind. This is a pretty hard thing to capture, but I believe, for better or for worse, Titus Andronicus did it very well. This album is wild, unpredictable, and at times pretty cringeworthy much like the life of a mental health patient. What I'm saying is: Yes, this album is very cool and conceptual, but sometimes that honestly can hurt it.
This album has 29 tracks. 29. That's a lot, or so I thought. The amount of tracks that are either interludes or under 2 minutes amounts to 13. If take those 13 tracks away this album does not lose much, and it is honestly way easier to digest. I guess it is cool that these great 2 minute punk songs exist, but honestly if 13 songs on your album are not vital, then something is just not quite right. Also, I understand Stickles is portraying a character that many would consider insane, but he literally sounds cringeworthy at moments during this album. Sometimes it really detracts from the tunes on here. I feel like it was probably intentional that he sounded extra screamy and angsty, but a lot of the time his vocals simply sound bad. Despite his sometimes average voice, Stickles still packs a ton of punch on these tracks and I certainly appreciate that. At times he felt soulless on Local Business, so it was really refreshing to hear him more fired up (pun intended) and passionate on this baby. These instrumentals really shred too! The energy is just palpable on tracks like Dimed Out and Fired Up. These tracks have really catchy hooks, and they just feel extremely true to the band's roots to me. Dimed Out especially reminds me of The Airing of Grievances. Also this album has two centerpieces that are both just insanely good. More Perfect Union shares the same title as the opener to The Monitor, and honestly this track might rival that one. The song just sounds so immense. It channels arena rock, punk, and hokey rock and it does so in such a natural and organic way. (S)he Said/(S)he Said feels a little less substantial instrumentally, but this song is oozing with emotion. Stickles lyrically just sounds out of his own body on this song. He really feels as if he is struggling with temptation in so many different ways, and you can just feel the struggle in his voice. This song is pretty epic as well, and to me it's the best track on here. But for every one of these tracks there is a I Lost My Mind (both versions aren't good), Lonely Boy, or Come On Siobhan. These tracks just feel like generic, dad Bruce Springsteen piano rock. While that is not necessarily bad, on an album full of ambitious punk tunes, it is the last thing I want to hear. I Lost My Mind really is just unremarkable and Come On Siobhan just doesn't even sound like the band. Lonely Boy is extremely strong lyrically, but sonically I just cannot get behind it. There were other bad moments too. I'm Going Insane is just a rehash of a Local Business tune in a different key, Stable Boy just tries way too hard to be emotional, and Please is just non coherent. Still, the weak moments are nothing compared to the good stuff here. As a whole the album is pretty mediocre, but if you think this band lost their edge, I would debate you on that. I think this album's concept was amazing, but it may have actually hurt the record, so I am left kind of in between here. They did the concept well, but perhaps sometimes this madman was just too real for me.
Nothing describes this album better than Fatal Flaw. During the chorus Stickles proudly chants, "Let me show you my fatal flaw", and that's pretty much what he's doing to us on this record. He is bearing his heart out for all of us, so we really get to see everything about him/his character he is playing. Honestly although it can get tiresome, it certainly is pretty unique to see, and for this reason, I can at least respect this record. I'd recommend you at least give this baby a try.
BEST TRACKS: NO FUTURE PT. IV, Look Alive, Lookalike, Dimed Out, Fired Up, More Perfect Union, She Said/She said, Pair of Brown Eyes, Intro To The Void, NO FUTURE PT. V
WORST TRACKS: All Those Random Soundclip Interludes, Lonely Boy, I Lost My Mind X2, Mr. E Mann, Sun Salutation, Intermission, Come On Siobhan, Stable Boy, I'm Going Insane
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