14. Titus Andronicus - Titus Andronicus

Everyone that writes or has written knows the unnerving feeling of writer's block. Ironically, it took me about 20 different false starts on this post before I decided how to proceed so clearly I know the feeling as well although for me it's easy to get over... I simply remind myself that I never have nor will I ever need to rely on my already minimal ability to be creative to get by. When I think about someone for whom writing pays the bills experiencing writer's block though I find it to be a very scary proposition. What if you've gotten famous for some incredible achievement in literature, music, or film and you simply have nothing left in the tank. Are musicians paralyzed by the fear of never again coming up with a riff or hook that's worth a damn? If one believes New Jersey's Titus Andronicus on their self titled song "Titus Andronicus" then the answer is a resounding and violent YES
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In the shouty, agressive, and unabashedly loud track, the four piece channels The Story is in the Soil... era Bright Eyes while also giving some musical love to the over the top textured compositions of Springsteen's catalog with the E Street Band. The album, The Airing of Grievances which as you might have guessed gets its name from the penultimate celebration of Seinfeld's Festivus is bitch and moan fest after another that works infinitely better than similar material which often times comes off as spoiled and petulant (see Romance, My Chemical and Confessional, Dashboard). Lyrically, the listener gets a good old fashioned melodramatic freak out care of vocalist Patrick Stickles who pouts

"Throw my guitar down on the floor
No one cares what I've got to say anymore
I didn't come here to be damned with faint praise
I'll write my masterpiece some other day
(Fuck everything, fuck me)"

Emo-ish? Yes. But trust me, just listen and you'll appreciate the pissed off stomp and jubilant nihilism that as a whole is quite reminiscent of Cursive's early 2000s masterpiece The Ugly Organ .