The Monitor

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.

The name of the group, title of the album, and album art did not draw me in at all. However as soon as I hit play I was fully engaged. Smart lyrics, energy, interesting in every dimension. I absolutely loved this oddball offering. Kudos to the bold listener who decided this would be the album they shared.

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.

Really liked this album. Unique, but identifiable. Glad it was recommended.

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.

A lot of energy and emotion packed into kind of pop-punk adjacent rock songs. Pretty fun! Occasionally gets into Mountain Goats territory a bit (in a good way), but with a more robust instrumentation.

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: A more perfect union, Titus Andronicus forever

Had heard of this album for a long time but never gave it a listen myself, so a fitting pick for this list. Glad to have heard it now, this is a rousing punk journey

Good with any band that names itself after a Shakespeare play. Bonus points for being so Pogues-y and for being a historically informed concept album (best-ever about the War Between the States?). And still more bonus points for for false-flag title of “Theme from Cheers.” The hard rock-emo combo works okay, and one likes the raucous, stewy feel of the songs, how long they go on. It's all quite pleasingly maximalist — and all-in operatic. What Green Day might have been. Only question is – does this guy sing like Conor Oberst or does Conor Oberst sing like him? The perfect sort of band to see at festivals. Good recommendation: one will make a point to hear more of this group. The list proper would be much improved by flipping this out for any of the D. Albarn side projects ... or even his central project. (In other words, this is def better than Blur.)

Pissy + melodic is one of my favorite combos in music. So I enjoyed the energy of this album lot. Kind of an American take on the Pogues with a dash of the Replacements for good measure. A little repetitive in spots, but overall a great listen. Fave Songs: A More Perfect Union, A Pot in Which to Piss, To Old Friends and New, Richard II..., Four Score and Seven

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.

The first line of the Apple Music album review ponders about this being Springsteen-Ian which is an instant turn off. Fortunately either it isn’t overt enough or I wasn’t paying close enough attention to be annoyed by that. Alt / Indie that’s trying a little too hard but not so much that you can’t listen all the way through and feel just fine about it

Interesting idea for a concept album. Music was good

Average indie rock, a bit punky. 3/5.

Not a bad album at all. A good mix of indie and garage rock with a touch of Americana influence. This album feels older than it is and if that was the case may have been more impactful. Instead it seems like it blends into the mix of the indie scene of the 2010s. I thought the concept and performance was good but not an indie album that I would be itching to hear. They’re like the gaslight anthem but less catchy. 6.3/10

When Conor Oberst has been listening to a steady diet of The Replacements and Mumford & Sons.

I had low expectations. Surprisingly not bad

Yeah fine

Billy Bragg meets Bruce Springsteen, to write songs about history. Not a boring as that sounds, but not far off

I’ve now listened to this four times, and like a few other reviews, I really wanted to like it more than I do. On paper, it’s got a lot going for it: a Civil War-inspired concept album wrapped in scrappy punk energy and Springsteenian ambition. There are moments that catch my ear, and I admire the scope and intent, but somehow it all washes over me without landing. It’s loud, it’s clever, it’s ambitious… but it doesn’t grab me emotionally or stick in my memory. In one ear, out the other. Maybe I’ll come back to it someday and it’ll click, but for now, it’s a respectful shrug.

Musically this has the potential to be a great album. I like the unpolished production and it often veers off in unexpected directions. But those vocals..... vocals can make or break an album for me. And here they really ruin things completely. It just doesn't work for me at all.

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.

Didn’t blow me away

It appears that North American naval rock is still not my scene.

I'd listened to 'A More Perfect Union' before and enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this listen. Unfortunately, this LP suffers from a lack of editorial artistry – there's entirely too much going on in an already-stuffed runtime, and the album as a whole feels like a tsunami of ideas without much organization towards a central theme outside the rough concept of New Jersey. I enjoyed some tracks here and there, but a full listen left me exhausted!

Not really for me

2 1

Sorry but I really did not enjoy this. The vocals just annoyed me throughout. Probably a two star album for me but something else really got on my tits too… what is it with the fucking Irish cosplay of East Coast American? It’s cultural appropriation, a transparent marketing scam, and it makes you look stupid, stop it now. 😮🫨😮