Titus Andronicus – The Airing Of Grievances
(Troubleman Unlimited)
Titus Andronicus have been championing the resurgence of a certain division of indie rock not heard since a few young New Yorkers calling themselves The Strokes blew everybody away with their own brand of atmospheric, unpolished tunes.
The Airing Of Grievances aptly demonstrates that good ol’ fashioned meat and potatoes indie rock and with its rough-edged live feel smacks of authenticity. ‘Arms Against Atrophy’, one of the album’s most notable tunes, even makes space for a get-up-and-dance guitar solo. This is the kind of music made for muddy festivals and smoky little American bars, not international stadium tours.
Every song displays the band’s penchant for dynamics, from slow and soulful build-ups to punky, defiant choruses and back again, accompanied all the while by scratchy, screechy feedback. All this ambient racket may strike a little controversy but it’s part of the contour, adding to the overall tumultuous atmosphere and modulating to perfection in self-titled track ‘Titus Andronicus’, a trademark tune that truly merits a good sing along.
Lyrically too, there’s a whole spectrum of variation, from serious and vulnerable in ‘Albert Camus’ to shrewd and witty in the sardonic commentary of ‘My Time Outside The Womb’.
The band’s music, like their influences, is all-encompassing and although nine songs may seem a little meagre, all of them have a hell of a lot to offer and manage to explore every nook and cranny of their immense creative repertoire. Overall The Airing Of grievances, in 45 uproarious, piano-bashing, cymbal-crashing minutes of pure, rough-and-tumble, indie rock, reasserts the true value of a genre that we’d nearly forgotten how much we really love.
http://www.myspace.com/titusandronicus
Leave your response!