Titus Andronicus – Local Business

Titus Andronicus‰’ third album, Local Business, seems to find the band thinking about its long-term career and making some subtle changes in its sound and approach as a result. In this way, the record‰’s title has a lot more meaning behind it than just frontman Patrick Stickles‰’ cries on Twitter to “#CRUSHCAPITALISM.‰” For one, Local Business puts an emphasis on tight group interplay and recalls the local DIY punk scene that the band is a vocal advocate of, wisely opting away from trying to top the grandeur of 2010‰’s The Monitor. Meanwhile, the title also refers to the personal struggles Stickles describes throughout the record, including his battle with selective eating disorder on the album‰’s brave, bold centerpiece “My Eating Disorder.‰Û

While the spoken word interludes and Civil War metaphors of earlier albums may be gone, the songwriting and performances are as strong as ever: “Ecce Homo‰” opens with a winking nod to the band‰’s angst-ridden nature, declaring, “OK, I think by now we‰’ve established that everything is inherently worthless,‰” and “Upon Viewing Oregon’s Landscape With The Flood Of Detritus‰” describes a car crash in horrific detail behind an excellent harmonizing guitar riff. Best of all is lead single “In A Big City,‰” in which Stickles tackles consumerism, anonymity, and Brooklyn to create the band‰’s most compact anthem yet.

Local Business might not be the ambitious punk masterpiece that The Monitor is, but it doesn‰’t have to be; rather, the album serves as a reminder that Titus Andronicus don‰’t need bells and whistles (and bagpipes) to convey their musical power – they‰’re just fine with a few guitars and a whole lot of fury, thank you very much.

By Cameron Meindl