Music, Style & Culture

Best Of 2010: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart On Titus Andronicus

Kip tells us about his favourite album of 2010.

Kip, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Titus Andronicus - 'The Monitor'

It goes without saying (as I've said it countless times) that Titus Andronicus is a band I whole-painfully-pure-heartedly LOVE. In 2006 Alex and I saw them play several deserted shows in New York (their friends were too young to get in) and subsequently we went to their bassist Ian's Mom's house in Glenn Rock, NJ to see them play a High School party – this was far better attended. Being that we were 21+ and could buy beer, we soon became good friends.

Their debut, 'The Airing of Grievances', seemed like one of those “this is our life” records, where every moment “Outside the Womb” is fair game for their hyper literate, smarty minus ahhhrty, suburban, sprawling punk rock epics. It also seemed like something that both defined and ended a genre - doing so makes it a CLASSIC. It also makes it hard to follow it up. So 'The Monitor' both hilariously and brilliantly takes all the qualities that most bands and record labels would seek to curtail (sprawling song lengths, an unwieldy, historical and geographically specific concept, mostly chorus-less songwriting, beards) and just revels in them. They found the thing that makes them who they are – all the incongruity, mayhem and maximalism that made their debut so exhilarating, and decided to accentuate those qualities even more. Perversely, it’s an embrace of their identity as suburban, middle-class punks – something with which so many bands would rather not be identified.

But Kip, do you like it? Yes. 'The Monitor' is a triumph – a record that’s even more visceral, cleverer and impassioned than their debut, which itself was exemplary of all those qualities. It’s weirdly life affirming, even when the subject matter is anything but. It’s far out of step with contemporary fashions in “indie” music; instead it feels routed in the values of artists like Ted Leo/Chisel, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Exploding Hearts, Desaparecidos – even the ragged, witty magic of The Kinks. It captures the spirit of indie/underground music as something more than a fashion or fidelity – it's a fiery determination to do something heartfelt and unrelenting, regardless of whether or not a lot of people will ever hear or embrace it. Hopefully you’re one of the people that will.