Part I: Cause Tramps Like Us, Baby We Were Born To Die
"From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide."
-Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address
Titus Andronicus is from New Jersey. To most people that wouldn't be that big of a deal, but Patrick Stickles thinks otherwise. Of course, when speaking of the New Jersey music scene you will always find some poetic longing for Bruce Springsteen in one way or another. People certainly forget just how rich the scene has become. Even if they only release and album once every ten years, The Wrens are amazing. Yo La Tengo has been a mainstay for close to 20 years. Ted Leo, The Feelies, The Misfits, etc.
To Titus Andronicus, New Jersey is a place that you run away from, but always end up returning to.
"So I'm going back to New Jersey, I do believe they've had enough of me"
It is a safe haven of a sort. A place that holds within great cruelty, but also a feeling of nostalgia. Whether they are proud of it or not, it is home.
This contradiction is what makes The Monitor such a great record. Thought of as something of a concept album about the civil war, I like to believe it is simpler than that. It is the war of the self; the constant struggle between madness and consciousness, addiction and temperance, violence and peace. Just as The North and The South create one whole, so does the struggle between the left and right brain.
Part II: No Feelings Now, and Never Again
"Nothing is anything anymore. Everything is less than zero"
This is not a breaking down of the human psyche. It is an acceptance of how the norms that make up our lives and cultures have never allowed for us to show our weaknesses.
Titus Andronicus understands how absurd it is for people to walk around and act like there is nothing wrong in their lives.
Part III: You Better Thank Your Lucky Stars
On the musical front, this album is an interesting mix. Most songs have an overall punk flare, but there is smatterings of greater verbosity. Piano, violin, and the occasional horn instrument make appearances throughout. The Bagpipes used in "The Battle of Hampton Roads" gives the album's final track the feeling of a funeral dirge. Most songs, excluding the shorter songs such as "Titus Andronicus Forever" use a relatively simple loud, quiet, loud, system in which the songs explode for a time with a solo or some form of loudness, and then retreat to expound on more lyricism. Although this does get tedious at some points, It also gives the songs a feeling of importance, an anthemic quality.
Most people compare Patrick Stickle's singing style to that of Conor Oberst circa Desaparecidos. While this is true, I have come to believe that he sounds equally as similar to Paul Westerberg of The Replacements. Either way, his voice can be grating, but this is, in its roots, a punk band. If the lead singer could sing they probably would be considered some other genre of music.
Every so often their is a guest singer. Dan McGee from Spider Bags appears on "Theme From Cheers" and Jenn Wasner from Wye Oak adds some class to the beautiful "To Old Friends and New".
Part IV: Titus Andronicus Forever
Overall The Monitor is a study in the flaws of man, and how it can cause consequences as large as the civil war. The album expands on what Titus Andronicus' first album The Airing of Grievances started: how fragile a human being is, and how absurd of a culture we live in. Although The Airing of Grievances was harsh and vindictive, The Monitor is more fleshed out. There are ideas on this album that go beyond the proverbial "fuck everything, fuck me" method. The Monitor manages to use the largest conflict in American history as a microcosm for the human spirit.
But one fact remains: The Monitor is a study in depression. Maybe this is what they are really trying to leave us with: there is no hope, only heartache. Hope, although abundant in this world, largely never comes to fruition. The fact that, in the end, there is no song that lifts us up on The Monitor. This proves that much like how New Jersey is to the members of Titus Andronicus, depression is to all of us.
It is not something that we ever want to return to, but we eventually crawl back to it at some point.
Part V: ...And Ever
To Titus Andronicus, New Jersey is a place that you run away from, but always end up returning to.
"So I'm going back to New Jersey, I do believe they've had enough of me"
It is a safe haven of a sort. A place that holds within great cruelty, but also a feeling of nostalgia. Whether they are proud of it or not, it is home.
This contradiction is what makes The Monitor such a great record. Thought of as something of a concept album about the civil war, I like to believe it is simpler than that. It is the war of the self; the constant struggle between madness and consciousness, addiction and temperance, violence and peace. Just as The North and The South create one whole, so does the struggle between the left and right brain.
“I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch. AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
William Lloyd Garrison
Part II: No Feelings Now, and Never Again
"I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth."
Abraham Lincoln
Patrick Stickles is a very sad human being. His anger and frustration can be felt on every song.
"You will always be a loser"
The Monitor is focused in it's destruction of the human psyche. Each song portrays a different part of madness. Paranoia on "Titus Andronicus Forever". Addiction on "No Future Part 3". Hatred on "Richard II", Etc. Titus Andronicus understand the basic truth of humanity. It is not your talents and abilities that make up your humanity. What makes you "you" is your flaws: your petty hatred, your apathy, your jealousy, your greed, your obsessions.
This is not a breaking down of the human psyche. It is an acceptance of how the norms that make up our lives and cultures have never allowed for us to show our weaknesses.
"Let them see you struggle and they’re going to tear you apart.
You ain’t never been no virgin, kid, you were fucked from the start.
They’re all going to be laughing at you."
They’re all going to be laughing at you."
Titus Andronicus understands how absurd it is for people to walk around and act like there is nothing wrong in their lives.
''The audience was large and brilliant. Upon my weary heart was showered smiles, plaudits, and flowers, but beyond them, I saw thorns and troubles innumerable."
Jefferson Davis
Part III: You Better Thank Your Lucky Stars
''And there and then and bathed by the rising sun, my son in his grave, in his rude-dug grave I deposited, ending my vigil strange with that, vigil of night and battle-field dim, vigil for boy of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding,). Vigil for comrade swiftly slain, vigil I never forget, how as day brighten'd, I rose from the chill ground and folded my soldier well in his blanket, and buried him where he fell.
(Walt Whitman, "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night," 1865)''
On the musical front, this album is an interesting mix. Most songs have an overall punk flare, but there is smatterings of greater verbosity. Piano, violin, and the occasional horn instrument make appearances throughout. The Bagpipes used in "The Battle of Hampton Roads" gives the album's final track the feeling of a funeral dirge. Most songs, excluding the shorter songs such as "Titus Andronicus Forever" use a relatively simple loud, quiet, loud, system in which the songs explode for a time with a solo or some form of loudness, and then retreat to expound on more lyricism. Although this does get tedious at some points, It also gives the songs a feeling of importance, an anthemic quality.
Most people compare Patrick Stickle's singing style to that of Conor Oberst circa Desaparecidos. While this is true, I have come to believe that he sounds equally as similar to Paul Westerberg of The Replacements. Either way, his voice can be grating, but this is, in its roots, a punk band. If the lead singer could sing they probably would be considered some other genre of music.
Every so often their is a guest singer. Dan McGee from Spider Bags appears on "Theme From Cheers" and Jenn Wasner from Wye Oak adds some class to the beautiful "To Old Friends and New".
Part IV: Titus Andronicus Forever
"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies"
Abraham Lincoln
Overall The Monitor is a study in the flaws of man, and how it can cause consequences as large as the civil war. The album expands on what Titus Andronicus' first album The Airing of Grievances started: how fragile a human being is, and how absurd of a culture we live in. Although The Airing of Grievances was harsh and vindictive, The Monitor is more fleshed out. There are ideas on this album that go beyond the proverbial "fuck everything, fuck me" method. The Monitor manages to use the largest conflict in American history as a microcosm for the human spirit.
But one fact remains: The Monitor is a study in depression. Maybe this is what they are really trying to leave us with: there is no hope, only heartache. Hope, although abundant in this world, largely never comes to fruition. The fact that, in the end, there is no song that lifts us up on The Monitor. This proves that much like how New Jersey is to the members of Titus Andronicus, depression is to all of us.
It is not something that we ever want to return to, but we eventually crawl back to it at some point.
Part V: ...And Ever
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