It was love at first sight for me and Titus Andronicus (Well at least on my end. Somehow I doubt they have an opinion of me one way or the other). I showed up towards the beginning of their set at a Todd P outdoor summer show. They were playing “Joset of Nazareth’s Blues,” and they sounded wonderful. None of the songs stuck out like that one, but there were several memorable moments during that show: lead singer Patrick Stickles holding up a sign reading “The Enemy is Everywhere” to assist us in singing along, Sickles introducing his guitar solo by saying “That was pretty good, but how about this,” and a wonderful chaotic energy that surrounded the entire band’s performance. When I first heard their debut album The Airing of Grievances, I was similarly impressed. Opener “Fear and Loathing in Mahwah NJ” was probably the best rock song of the year, and the rest of the album was similarly strong.

So I was understandably worried that the love affair would come to a tragic end when I heard that The Monitor, their follow-up album, would be a concept album. Especially when I read this passage explaining the album on their myspace page:

While I think Stickles is a capable songwriter, I had no desire to hear a concept album from his group. In fact, I could think of no riskier game of party poker for Titus Andronicus. And unfortunately, the results are about as baffling as you would expect. I hoped that Stickles summation of the album would either prove to be ridiculous hyperbole or would display some giant leap forward in songwriting ability that would save this album from the problems of overreach. Sadly, neither of those hopes came to fruition. The Monitor fails for all of the reasons I feared it would: It’s too long, too bloated, too ambitious, just plain exhausting to listen to. While not without its moments, The Monitor reaches too far to ever find the wonderful rock songs that made me love Titus Andronicus in the first place.

Just as “Fear and Loathing in Mahwah NJ” enraptured me immediately, opening track, “A More Perfect Union” immediately alienates me from The Monitor. It starts out like a fairly straight-forward rock song, and kicks into high gear when Stickles sings “Tramps like us, we were born to die!” and a guitar solo immediately follows. Writing this, it all sounds like it would sound exciting. Well it doesn’t. In fact, the guitar sound is immediately grating. The lead is right at the top of the mix, clumsily crowding out everything else. The song continues to lurch along until the pace appears to slow down in the middle. Things pick up steam and eventually, the whole band sings together that they, “rally around the flag.” It’s full of the same energy that I loved before, but it all just feels forced this time around.

It’s followed by “Titus Andronicus Forever” which I had known previously as “The Enemy is Everywhere.” This version is all fuzzy guitars and yelling. The song gets a reprise just before the closing track, featuring a much more enjoyable mix of piano and saxophone. Despite their choruses, these two songs are probably the closest thing to lighthearted moments on this album. It’s unfortunate then that they are both so short. These are the only two tracks on here that come in under three minutes, and both are basically over after about a minute and a half. The rest is some sort of poorly recorded speech. These recorded speeches are extremely overused on this album; I think at least half of the tracks on here either open or close with recorded monologues.

Not every song is a complete waste. Right in the middle of the album are two 8+ minute epics. The first “A Pot In Which To Piss” falls flat; a slackening of the pace in the middle and an awkward lyric about being “cuckolded and castrated” take one out of the moment. However, it’s followed by the even more ambitious “Four Score and Seven” which manages to somehow succeed, despite –or possibly because of—its far reach. It starts as a quiet mid-tempo country song. In the middle, the rest of the band joins in singing “You won’t be laughing so hard!” and things kick into high gear. Finally, we have a song that comes close to matching “Fear and Loathing in Mahwah NJ.” For the rest of the second half, Titus Andronicus don’t let up. By the end, they’re all singing that “It’s still us against them and they’re winning!” but somehow make it sound like losing is more fun.

Overall however, listening to the album as a whole is an exhausting experience. There’s exactly one quiet track on here: the seven-minute “To Old Friends and New” that comes towards the album’s end. It’s a welcome respite, but it does nothing to prepare one for the closing fourteen minute epic, “The Battle of Hampton Roads.” The first seven minutes are a pretty straightforward, if not-too-engaging rock song. Midway through, the pace slows and horns and bagpipes –yes bagpipes—are introduced to the mix. It’s a bit overboard, but still kind of fun. But when the pace picks up again and the original melody returns (or something that sounds close to it), it is difficult to not just check out and just wait for the album to finally finish.

What is most depressing about The Monitor is that it isn’t any gross departure from what Titus Andronicus have already been doing. It’s everything they’ve already been doing but amplified. And I don’t like it. I even found myself growing irritated with Stickles vocal delivery. His inability to find any medium between quavering and yelling reminds me of the days when I listened to Bright Eyes (it’s been about six years). Maybe you like over-emotional singers, but I thought I had moved on. And if they continue to release albums like this one, I’m going to have to move on from Titus Andronicus.

Track List:
1. A More Perfect Union
2. Titus Andronicus Forever
3. No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future
4. Richard II
5. A Pot in Which to Piss
6. Four Score and Seven
7. Theme From 'Cheers'
8. To Old Friends and New
9. …And Ever
10. The Battle of Hampton Roads