For the Record - 03/18/10

Titus Andronicus’ second LP, “The Monitor,” was released on the 148th anniversary of the Battle of Hampton Roads, the legendary Civil War naval battle between ironclad warships. But why derive the album’s name from this battle, release the album on its anniversary and name the epic, 14-minute closing track “The Battle of Hampton Roads”?

To hear it in frontman Patrick Stickles’ own words, they used the Civil War as a thematic focus to illustrate “how the conflicts that led our nation into that great calamity remain unresolved, and the effect that this ongoing division has on our personal relationships and our behavior and how they’re all out to get us (or maybe not?) and yadda, yadda, yadda.”

This half-assed, self-deprecating approach to the idea of a “Civil War concept album” permeates “The Monitor.” It makes perfect sense for The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn to read an excerpt from Walt Whitman in between songs, but there’s a gentle jab at self-serious, Burnsian documentaries in choosing Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone to read a Jefferson Davis speech.

Stickles has cited Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” as an inspiration for the album, but Civil War reference points in the lyrics are more often run through Stickles’ angst machine and used to comment on modern suburban life than on actual historical occurrence. But this game of fast-and-loose played with the details of history is actually a benefit to the album, not a hindrance.

Titus Andronicus’ first album, “The Airing of Grievances,” had a DIY punk ethos, it had glimmering shoegaze guitars, it had drunken barroom singalongs and screamed “F*** Yous!”, it had highbrow cultural references, and it had nihilism, suburban ennui and boatloads of angst.

The Civil War serves less as a defining element for “The Monitor” and more as just another ingredient thrown into the fascinating and hugely enjoyable Titus Andronicus stew.

The first two minutes of opening track “A More Perfect Union” encapsulate a number of these elements. After an excerpt from a somewhat apocalyptic Lincoln speech, the band enters into an explosion of hammering guitar, drums and bass. After a verse steeped in New Jersey geographical references, Stickles screams, “Because tramps like us, baby we were born to die!” and a blistering guitar lick enters.

Already we’ve had countless references to Northeastern geography, a historical icon and a rock and roll hero, typically ass-kicking instrumentals and plenty of blood and high drama.

This should also illustrate just how fun this album is. On “The Airing of Grievances,” a similar set of elements coalesced into something that was, despite being “fun” in an inebriated, punching-holes-through-walls sort of way, much more angry and stark.

“The Monitor” has all that, but it leaves you with a happy tint of communalism-through-desperation. There are cries of “rally around the flag,” and many more group sing-a-longs than before, but most importantly, there’s the sense that a huge group of people went into making this album.

Titus Andronicus have always had a revolving-door policy when it comes to members, but this album also features local bigpipers and brass players, the aforementioned indie pals playing historic characters, the vocal contribution of Wye Oak’s incredible Jenn Wasner on “To Old Friends and New,” and the behind-the-scenes recording work by countless friends and fellow musicians.

The sheer amount of stuff that The Monitor contains could lead it to feel overwrought or distended. Instead, Titus Andronicus’ off-the-cuff wit, heart-on-bloodstained-sleeve emotion, and play-like-you’ve-got-a-gun-to-your-head energy let them pull it off with a charming, glorious messiness.

Out of 10 songs, five are at least seven minutes long, filled with mini-movements, tempo changes, battle-march interludes and, yes, one bagpipe and one saxophone solo. It’s often funny, wrenching and just plain badass all at once, and it’s exhausting to listen to all the way through.

But I’ve come back to it over and over, and it has racked up some serious play counts since I obtained it. Just imagining the musical buildup and relentless lyrical assault of “The Battle of Hampton Roads” in a live setting gives me shivers. I can say definitively that it’s my favorite record of 2010 so far.