Customer Reviews

The Monitor

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This album is great. The ten songs add up to just about 60 minutes, and not one second is boring. There is constantly great instrumentation and lyrics that will have you thinking and laughing. There are so many different genres on this album that keeps the listener wanting more. I could go on and on about this album, but I won't bore you. If you love punk, or any sort of rock and roll you need to get this album now.

I wish I could remember how I learned about this album--it sure wasn't from how famous Titus Andronicus is. But they deserve to be well-known, even celebrated. It's been a long time since I've heard punk-flavored rock as whip-smart and satisfying as what's on "The Monitor," or songs as complex and accomplished, or lyrics as clever and poetic as these:

Solidarity's going to give a lot less than it'll take
Is there a girl at this college who hasn't been raped?
Is there a boy in this town that's not exploding with hate?
Is there a human alive that can look themselves in the face

Without winking?
Or say what they mean without drinking?
Or believe in something without thinking, "What if somebody doesn't approve?"
Is there a soul on this Earth that isn't too frightened to move?

...

And so now when I drink, I'm going to drink to excess
And when I smoke, I will smoke gaping holes in my chest
And when I scream, I will scream until I'm gasping for breath
And when I get sick, I will stay sick for the rest...Of my days


Part of the poetry of these lyrics is reflected in the snarling, growling voice they are delivered in. I don't know very much about Titus Andronicus, and I don't even remember why I know them at all. But "The Monitor" has rapidly become one of my favorite albums of the past four years. If you're a fan of the vocals of a band like Flogging Molly, with shifts in intrusmentation and time signatures redolent of Rush (of all bands), with sturdy, break-out instrumentation and firmly rooted sense of place (New Jersey), you might find Monitor compelling. I can't WAIT to hear what T.A. comes up with next.