Band – Title Fight
Album – Floral Green
Label – Side One Dummy
Release date – September 2012
Sounds like – post-hardcore that’s having a love affair with feedback and grunge.
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Like gravely and slightly nasally vocals? Like scrappy, punk rock? Like songs about feelings and ceiling fans? Like bands that play in basement shows where stage diving is mandatory and the smell of beer/sweat will never leave? Of course you do, who doesn’t?
‘Floral Green’ is Title Fight’s second album; the follow-up to‘Shed’. ‘Numb, But I Still Feel It’ thunders past with the gritty, gravelled roar of early Hot Water Music. It’s spat out with furious determination and dexterity, yet there’s that underlying fuzz and a rather bitter melodic aftertaste.
Mistakenly thought their was brass on ‘Like A Ritual’ but it turns out to just be the guitar tone and what a tone! There’s an element of swagger connected to this, but it still burns with angst ridden disdain whilst the crunching second guitar wails out a bawl of feedback on the song’s coda.
‘Leaf’ is a brash, focused uppercut of dense punk rock and one of loudest and murky songs on ‘Floral Green’. Described as quite sad and depressing by bassist Ned Russin, it feels like a release more than anything – cathartic if you will.
“I’ve made promises I can’t keep…I fell asleep†barks Ned or (Jamie) on ‘Secret Society’, one of the ‘lightest’ sounding tracks on ‘Floral Green’. Despite this, it’s still has that gritty buzz and “fuck the man†aesthetics, which humourlessly run quiet well alongside the pop-punk bounce of the chorus. ‘Head In The Ceiling Fan’ is like a bloodied and broken version of Brand New (hey, that IS Brand New isn’t it?) With its almost trance like quality, the other guy singing (less gruff) and big dreamy chords that sound absolutely massive. It’s a sprawling, slow-motion fall into a vortex and is apparently about thinking to much; so don’t think when you listen to it.
‘Make You Cry’ takes some of best moments of ‘Head In The Ceiling Fan’ and cranks the volume up louder creating a wash of noisy, discordant, almost grunge-rock, whilst ‘Sympathy’ is a snotty, aggressive 3 minute blast of cluttered punk rock that sprawls and spills with gusto and derision – “never wanted sympathy, just wanted to be something†utters Ned, who quite reasonably states “I just want to be interesting.â€
Reading about how ‘Lefty’ came about (the working title was ‘Rap Song’ and all Russin could think about while they were playing it was someone rapping really fast over it.) Reading this makes me sad they didn’t try that, but apparently it upset Russin or something. Someone should remove the vocals and attempt this though.
Fans of Jawbreaker, Hot Water Music, Small Brown Bike, Polar Bear Club and even Sonic Youth will get a lot of enjoyment out of ‘Floral Green’ – it’s a grower, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s a rewarding, coarse and intricate collection of songs that trades in speed, but collects a healthy amount of haze and dream-like bliss.
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