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Jul 30, 2019An Obelisk is fast, rugged fun. Blues dirge for your rocking chair ("My Body and Me"), vocal harmonies ("The Lion Inside"), and almost funk ("Within the Gravitation").
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Jun 20, 2019The songs here beg to fall apart but are kept in tight reign by Chris Wilson's drums and R.J. Gordon’s flurrying bass while Stickles and guitarist Liam Betson slay riffs and trade licks.
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Jun 18, 2019Titus Andronicus didn’t need to further prove themselves with this album, but they did anyway.
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Jun 21, 2019It simply finds Stickles and his crew moving from one position of strength to another, and it's as bold and exciting as anything they've delivered so far.
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Jun 20, 2019An Obelisk manages to capture Titus Andronicus in a disarming, unsuspecting mood: one of equal parts maturity, volume, and simplicity.
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Kerrang!Jun 18, 2019A powerful and worthy addition to the band's increasingly diverse catalogue. [15 Jun 2019, p.55]
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Jul 3, 2019An Obelisk is not quite as statuesque as it wants to be, though it does demonstrate the band’s ethos in a tightly-wound package, and is a solid addition to a repertoire that continues to make a Titus Andronicus release unmissable.
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Jun 25, 2019While the overall tone and style fits him and the band well, the majority of songs are fine yet not particularly memorable. A Productive Cough looks like a mid-career outlier now as Titus Andronicus settle back into their pub rock punk hybrid on An Obelisk.
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Jun 24, 2019A Productive Cough felt more like a genre exercise than a passion project, and that’s true of An Obelisk, too, except this time the genre is a far better fit.
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Jun 18, 2019It's an in-your-face, no-frills rock record that contrasts with the slower tracks of A Productive Cough, reminding fans that no matter what happens, this band can still rock. For those looking for the vintage punk Titus Andronicus, this record will do just fine, even if it doesn't quite match the high points of their best work.
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UncutJun 18, 2019Previous weighty concepts have been scrapped in favour of intense focus. [Jul 2019, p.37]
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Q MagazineJul 2, 2019There are curveballs along the way--an unexpected bagpipe riff on Hey Ma, for instance--but largely this is a fast, furious record that sounds startlingly vital in these worrisome times. [Aug 2019, p.116]
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Jun 21, 2019If you’re partial to a bit of blue-collar punk, this is likely to be right up your street.
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Jun 19, 2019An Obelisk is by no means a bad record. Each of its songs are solid if not spectacular, and Stickles’ lyrics are always interesting, but as an album it is let down by a lack of variety. You’re left thinking that there’s probably a single great album to be made out of their last two records.
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Jun 18, 2019With so many flat, unoriginal riffs and unmemorable choruses, there’s just not enough meat here to reward that approach, and despite its unrelenting volume, An Obelisk just feels empty without the wide-ranging dynamics and ambitious arrangements that have, until now, defined Titus Andronicus’s music.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 8
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Mixed: 1 out of 8
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Negative: 1 out of 8
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Dec 7, 2019
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Jun 21, 2019Mission accomplished! Born to bruise. Everyone's a critic but most people love guitar solos