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The Monitor is the second studio album by American indie rock band Titus Andronicus, released in March 2010 through XL Recordings. It is a concept album loosely based on themes relating to the American Civil War. The album title is a reference to the USS Monitor, the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy, and the closing track, "The Battle of Hampton Roads", refers to the battle between the Monitor and the CSS Virginia, which took place on March 8–9, 1862; according to the band, "Releasing this record is our way of celebrating the 148th anniversary of this historic event." There are numerous references to early Billy Bragg songs such as some lyrics in "A More Perfect Union" and the song "Richard II". "A More Perfect Union" also includes references to the band's New Jersey roots as well as riffs on the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen, another New Jersey native. The Monitor features guest appearances by members of Ponytail, Wye Oak, Hallelujah The Hills, Felice Brothers, Spider Bags, Vivian Girls and the Hold Steady. The Monitor received a Metacritic score of 82 out of 100, signaling universal acclaim. Pitchfork included the album in their list of top albums of 2010, at #10 while Spectrum Culture gave the album its #1 position. "The Monitor" was named Exclaim!'s No. 20 Pop & Rock Album of 2010. The album was recognized as number 30 of The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far by Pitchfork Media in August 2014.
Never heard of them but had to listen to it twice in a row. Brilliant.
This was an interesting exploration of punk + rock + garage together in a little package.
This one started really slow but gained a ton of momentum and ended firing on all cylinders. It could also have just been that I paid more attention closer to the end but either way I ended up really enjoying this. It’s the 2010s iteration of the early 2000s indie rock and it’s one of the good parts of that genre. Not quite fitting thematically with my current major life changes tho.
Indie rock. Me ha gustado. Un 4.
A punk rock concept album about the civil war. Hmmm. Pretty damn good, actually! Reminds me a bit of Jeff Rosenstock, and with some of the raucous feel of my favorite band, the Replacements. Good stuff, will check out more of their work. 4 stars.
Another of these regional indies that never quite broke through. GBV and Pavement adjacent but with more hardcore and post-punk DNA. A little over-clever for me and longer than it needs to be but I generally enjoyed it.
I wanted to like this more than I did, but it still had some strong highlights for me. The concept is interesting to me, and some of the more involved and epic songs I really liked. I did tire a bit of it somewhere in the middle, but those opening and closing tracks started things with a bang and left me overall pretty happy with this listen.
Hmm. Overlong, but more interesting than it first appeared... Some good variety and more than a touch of Springsteen.
These rock songs are quite good and the lyrics and concept of the album is interesting. Also a lot of other instruments (even bagpipes) and several old melodies of the civil war. I like the lo-fi sound, the guitar skills of the many guitar players on the album are not very impressive though. That's not a problem. The problem is that the vocals of the lead singer get on my nerves. If it works, he sounds a bit like Shane MacGowan of The Pogues: lazy and a somewhat off-key. Much too often his limited skills get annoying and diminish the quality of the songs and overall performance.
I didn't like it very much. Indie films are indie for a reason; they're very niche, and generally for their location. 1.5 stars
So, I couldn't make it through this one. Sorry.
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