The third album by this New Jersey band is pure unadulterated fun. 2010’s The Monitor was a punky concept album about the American Civil War, but there’s nothing like that to be found here. Local Business is full of deeply personal epics or silly riotous interludes, and it’s truly fantastic for it.
Titus Andronicus’ great talent lies in creating a bombastic sound with supercharged guitars and full on drums, with Patrick Stickles’ growly yelps on top. Likenesses to Bruce Springsteen are often thrown around, and with good merit – ‘anthemic’ doesn’t give Titus Andronicus enough credit. Take for example the live staple ‘Still Life with Hot Deuce and Silver Platter’ – the song moves with frenetic pace until we come to a two line chant repeated again and again- ‘Here it goes again! I hear you took it to another level!’ (A lyrics website informs me they repeat it 57 times).
But it doesn’t ever get boring – the band never gives you a second to relax. Perhaps even more anthemic is ‘(I Am the) Electric Man’, a song written after Stickles had an unfortunate incident in New York which resulted in 200 volts of electricity surging through his body.
It’s undoubtedly punk, but a lot more introspective and in fact poppy than we’d come to expect from the band. Arguably the most important song on the album is the mid-epic ‘My Eating Disorder’, a song about Stickles’ own lifelong troubles with food. No metaphors to be found here – “Spit it out!” he screams, “If it’s not too late to start again, open up that womb and I’ll crawl right in.” The introspective judging continues with the next song, where Stickles repeats the same line (“I’m going insane!”) repeatedly over crashing guitars. Songs like these make Local Business more accessible and personal than their previous albums, so when the final track ‘Tried to Quit Smoking’ announces its triumphal entrance, we’ve truly been taken along a musical journey, bumps and all.
