From the muted, muffled acoustic melancholy of the
opener "Fear And Loathing In Mahwah, NJ"—which erupts naturally into a
fireworks display of bile and itchy impatience—Titus Andronicus' The
Airing Of Grievances brooks
no bullshit. The disc is the sound of lusty youth ripping a gaping hole in the
fabric of reality: Throughout The Airing's nine sawed-off anthems, the Jersey
collective comes off like a clunky, blood-knuckled Arcade Fire that just
doesn't have time for
all that respectable crap. Because, you know, the world is falling apart around
their heads, and they only have this one shot at eating, fighting, and fucking
the entire universe. The album is being reissued by the band's new label,
XL—yes, the home of Vampire Weekend—soon, so expect The Airing to be much more visible
throughout 2009. But don't let that overshadow the fact that, with its brash
and boiling-over debut, Titus Andronicus has done its small part to draw
indie-rock out of the genre's recent navel-obsessed slump.