Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor is available for streaming on their my space and so I have finally been able to hear it all and it is a work of pure brilliance. A howl of outrage, antagonism, loss and war which improves upon the incomparable The Airing Of Grievances.
Mixing out side sources detailing pride and horror in the midst of the civil, Stickles leads you to one anthemic shout out after another, if it’s not “I wasn’t born to die like a dog, I was born to die just like a man”, it is “It’s us against them”, if he isn’t writing about a “new new jersey” or “tramps like us being born to die”, he is “going back to new jersey, I do believe they’ve had enough of me”.
They’ll be a lot more to say about this album once it is officially releaced next tuesday (plus I am going to see them at the bowery on the 9th). But in a coupla words: album of the year so far.