Patrick Stickles, the founder and leader of
Titus Andronicus, is a proud son of the state of New Jersey, and like a sizable majority of Garden State natives, he swears fealty to
Bruce Springsteen.
Titus Andronicus managed to find room to air their
Springsteen influences in their previous work, especially on their sprawling 2015 rock opera
The Most Lamentable Tragedy, so it's no great shock that when
Stickles was looking to take a creative left turn, he would look to
the Boss for inspiration.
Stickles sets aside his group's usual sound and approach for 2018's
A Productive Cough; instead of being built around a taut rock band, these seven songs find
Stickles surrounding himself with a gang of 21 musicians and vocalists, complete with horns, keyboards, cello, and massed vocals. This unruly but gifted mob gives the music a swaying, beer-addled stomp that sounds more than a bit like a barroom singalong just before last call. If
A Productive Cough resembles anything, it's
Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, the 2006 album where he generated a boisterous, lively sound from a similar mob of singers and players as they tackled a fistful of songs associated with
Pete Seeger. As you've probably figured out by now,
A Productive Cough doesn't sound that much like
Titus Andronicus as we've come to know them, but there's more than a bit of their feel in these songs, where
Stickles is still loudly contemplating his virtues and failings along with those of the world around him, and writing and singing with uncommon passion and clarity. Anyone who has the gall to rewrite "Like a Rolling Stone" and the talent and heart to make it work is clearly no ordinary punk, and if there's a need for a singalong anthem for the
Trump era, "Real Talk" could fit the bill beautifully. And if the collective voice of
Stickles and his collaborators doesn't always sound like rock & roll, it rocks regardless. If you're fond of the notion of rock & roll as folk music,
A Productive Cough is something you'll want to hear, an album that captures the roar of the masses in an unexpected way, and if you've loved the songs of
Titus Andronicus as much as their music, you'll find this isn't quite so different as you might think. ~ Mark Deming