Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy

Punk

81%

Lets get something clear from the outset; Tragedy is a hulking behemoth of an album. At 29 tracks, over and hour and a half long, sitting down and really listening to it requires some dedication. If I haven’t already put you off then you can look forward to one of the best punk albums of a generation. While most punk either falls flat as glorified pop music or descends into anarchy and loses all musicality, Tragedy takes inspiration from The Clash and gets the perfect balance. It draws from a range of well chosen influences including ‘London Calling’, ‘Exile On Main St.’, ‘Born To Run’ and ‘Rum, Sodomy and the Lash’. Titus have somehow managed to arrange the tracklist in such a way that the highlights are perfectly distributed for the best listening experience. The real crown of the album lies about a third of the way through with the glorious hat trick of ‘Mr E. Mann’, ‘Fired Up’ and ‘Dimed Out’.

The main issue with the album is the effort it requires, and I’m not just talking about the length. As a rock opera it has a unifying concept of manic depression, although if I hadn’t just told you you’d be hard pressed to figure it out. As well as the hard to follow concept, Tragedy is filled with references to previous albums. It features parts 4 and 5 of an album spanning suite and a reworking of one of their previous hits. I feel like even a dedicated Titus fan would have to put a fair bit of work into listening to Tragedy to fully reap the rewards, however there is still plenty of good music here for the layman to enjoy.