Ranking Titus Andronicus’ 7 Albums

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Nobody Asked My Opinion.

9 min readJul 23, 2019

The term ‘genius’ probably gets thrown around far too often when it comes to musical artists, but Titus Andronicus is one of the few groups that I think the label could appropriately fit — or at least some sort of tortured genius title. It’s the subtleties that the band so intricately weaves in and out through the music that sets them apart. On the surface, they’re a garage rock band that tends to write unusually long songs (for garage rock) that relate around personal subject matter interwoven with various historical subject matter or scattered references to even past material.

While the group has gone through several members, the clear head, and the only person who has been there since the beginning, is Patrick Stickles, the singer and chief songwriter who uses the band as an outlet to air (often) personal grievances and distress. It’s that personal baring of the soul that is so prevalent in the lyrics which makes the songs so instantly relatable to the listener. It’s also the imperfections in the music itself that heavily prevents it from ever coming across as particularly pretentious or self-righteous — something too band groups often get accused of.

While the general sound of the band is garage rock, they don’t pigeonhole themselves to only this sound and instead manage to stray out to more bluesy and punk-driven vibes with an almost improvisational undertone throughout. One thing I particularly enjoy about the band is that, despite how a song begins, you never really know where it’s going to end up and no matter how often they use the same trick, it still seems to work.

7. A Productive Cough (2018)

The slowest and loosest-flowing of their six albums, the end result here comes off as a bit lazy and uninspired as if they had a general concept for the album they wanted to record and then went into the recording studio, recorded for a few hours, and decided the end product was good enough. While the album itself isn’t terrible, it’s the only release of theirs that I don’t ever find myself wanting to go back to. The lack of effort is particularly apparent with the longest song being a cover “(I’m) Like a Rolling Stone”, a song that just seems to meander on forever until it finally, exhaustingly, ends. It’s clear that the album is trying to make a departure from their previous material, and while I applaud them for attempting to tackle new grounds (in this case more blues-centered), it ultimately comes across as more or less boring and missing the signature elements that made Titus Andronicus standout in the first place.

Recommended Tracks: Real Talk / Number One (In New York) / (I’m) Like a Rolling Stone

6. An Obelisk (2019)

An Obelisk is a welcome return to the more energetic songs that were lacking on A Productive Cough, but although it’s better than its predecessor, it still lacks the little idiosyncrasies that make Titus Andronicus stand out in the first place. The album has some undeniably great tracks, notably the opening banger, but somehow it still comes across as a hollow product overall. Maybe it’s because it seems that there’s less of a personal touch than in previous records or maybe it’s that Mr. Stickles just doesn’t have as much to say or write as he used to. With how ambitious their first four records are it could be that he’s exhausted a lot of his creative output. Besides that, it’s hard to really pinpoint anything particularly wrong with the album (make no mistake it’s not a bad record), but it still leaves me missing the more epic and grandiose nature that was found on past material. Instead of each track seeming like it’s getting the full 100% treatment, it feels more like it’s getting around 70–80% so that the songs are still solid rock songs, but the album isn’t probably going to stoke the flames of genius that was felt by listeners who were already fans.

Recommended Tracks: Just Like Ringing a Bell / The Lion Inside / Tumult Around the World

5. The Airing of Grievances (2008)

The first Titus Andronicus album and also my first (unsuccessful) introduction to the band. Admittedly, I didn’t fully appreciate the nuanced subtleties of this record when it first came out. I remember only really finding the track “Titus Andronicus” to be worthy of re-listens. Oh, how the times have changed. While it’s still not a perfect record, it accomplishes a lot for a debut. Probably its biggest fault is the overall sound quality, specifically when it comes to the vocals. Stickles’ singing sounds almost as if it’s coming from the end of a long hallway, distorted and often unintelligible. While this sound does make the record come off as more unique from the rest of their catalog, and even enhances it in some ways, it still hinders it from being ranked higher overall. The main takeaway is just how on the sleeve everything is and how, without any particular expectation from the album (Patrick planned to go to Graduate school after making the record), it just comes off as an album of necessity. One that needed to be written by a person in pain — looking for an outlet. The record’s ability to seamlessly sound like seasoned professionals performing together and musicians still gaining their playing chops simultaneously is truly inspiring. The album really reaches its peak with the repetition of “your life is over” at the end of “Titus Andronicus”.

4. The Will to Live (2022)

After the band’s previous two albums, The Will to Live really feels like a return to what made originally made the group give off a larger-than-life type of feel. Back are the grandiose medleys, soaring guitars, and homages to classic rock n’ roll. Musically and production-wise, there are clear similarities to 2019’s An Obelisk, but the songs here give off a more passionate vibe than that album. The whole record does a good job of varying up the songs without creating a disconnect in the flow. You’ve got “Dead Meat” which I believe is one of the best songs the band has released with its impassioned, almost angry vocal delivery and “I Can Not Be Satisfied” which relies on a classic piano riff to push the song thumping along. In the midst of these is a return to the long-form tracks in “Bridge and Tunnel” and “An Anomaly” which allows the melodies to breathe and venture outside an expected structure. While this record is still shy of the band at their peak, it’s nonetheless, an excellent addition to their growing catalog of records.

Recommended Tracks: Dead Meat / (I’m) Screwed / I Can Not Be Satisfied

3. Local Business (2012)

Local Business may not be the best Titus Andronicus album, but it’s the album that originally made me a fan of the band and I think it’s also the best record for new listeners to first listen to as its delivery is probably the easiest to follow. While, like previous records, it does jump back and forth between quick and slow tempo, overall I would say it’s their fastest record. The album also features almost no overdubs so that it could be performed live without skipping a beat. From a lyrical standpoint, it’s one of the weaker albums due to 3 of the songs (“Food Fight!”, “Titus Andronicus vs. the Absurd Universe (3rd Round KO)”, and “(I am the) Electric Man”) having almost no lyrics, but it does make up for it on other songs where that familiar vulnerable self-loathing lyrical style Patrick Stickles is known for really seeps through. Lines like “It’s not that I wanted to hurt you, I just didn’t care if I did” from slow burner “Tried To Quit Smoking” lets you feel every essence of destructive apathy that is uttered along. Stickles’ personal story on eating issues is also covered in extreme detail with “My Eating Disorder”. Of their entire catalog, “In a Big City”, off this record, is likely their most accessible potential radio hit.

Recommended Tracks: In a Big City / Ecce Homo / Tried To Quit Smoking

2. The Most Lamentable Tragedy (2015)

Clocking in at an hour and a half, The Most Lamentable Tragedy (name taken from the actual Shakespeare play) has to be the group’s most ambitious effort so far. The album itself is set as a rock opera with five acts spread throughout the runtime and thematic elements changing as the record/hero progresses. While the album is Titus Andronicus’s longest, it slightly cheats with its 29-song track list — 3 are cover songs, 1 is a reworked version of a song from Local Business, and there are four songs that are either silence or work as intro/outro sound (“The Angry Hour”, “[intermission]”, “[seven seconds]”, and “A Moral”). Production-wise, the album bears the closest resemblance to Local Business, so if you liked that album, you’ll likely enjoy this one too. While the album deals with various life experiences as well as other dreamscape visuals, the overarching theme throughout seems to be manic depression which I feel is quite well conveyed by the general manic nature of the band itself and Patrick’s unique vocals. The album certainly has its flaws when taken simply as a listening experience (tracks that need to be skipped for instance), but when viewed for what it was intended, a rock opera, I find it quite commendable what the band was able to achieve.

1. The Monitor (2010)

A concept album loosely based around the Civil War (the album title is taken from the USS Monitor, a warship that fought in the Civil War). The record blends quotes from Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Walt Whitman, and others with lyrics that are both historically themed as well as personal. Honestly, I can’t find a single real fault in this album. You may find some cynics that the concept is too thickly referenced in history that it distracts from actual personal style, but I don’t quite find this to be true. To me, this is a heartfelt take on personal relationship journeys that uses historical references to add more depth to the subject matter. With the Civil War being about family and people being torn apart, this album goes the opposite direction and includes several various musicians (and dialogue cameos) to add additional substance and grandeur to the record while also giving it a sense of community. As someone who doesn’t regularly enjoy songs that last over 5 minutes, it says a lot that I love this album as much as I do when even the album closer (at 14 minutes) never seems extraneous or bloated. There’s never a second on this album that you wish content would have been cut to allow for brevity. Each part fits together like perfect puzzle pieces to create the very unique experience that is — The Monitor.