So the first review I'm gonna throw up here is for the new Title Fight album, "The Last Thing You Forget". Unfortunately, this album isn't very much new material, it's a few new songs put together with some jams from their "Kingston EP" and their Split EP with the Erection Kids. If there is one thing Title Fight is good at, it's wearing their influences proudly on their sleeve, and I mean that in the best way possible. From start to finish, this (arguably) Pop-Punk album is absolutely packed with melodies nodding to 90's emo bands like Texas is the Reason, as well as big time Hardcore influence (a few of Title Fight's members play in the PA-based hardcore outfit Bad Seed).
Lyrically, this album is alot more emotional than the slew of hardcore-influenced pop-punk milling around in today's scene. The fast-paced "Symmetry" opens with the line, "There's symmetry/In the way you cut me right in two/each side reflects/the image of a crowded and empty room". Another lyrical highlight is on "Memorial Field": "Why not tie a noose around my neck?/I'm sure it'd be much more subtle than everything that you said" is a good representation of the way Title Fight eschews subtlety and goes right for the throat, a risky tactic that pays off on The majority of the album. These songs absolutely bleed poetry, and, for the most part, avoids cliches, although there are a few exceptions ("you broke me like a mirror").
My favorite track on the album is "Memorial Field", which serves, in my opinion, as a pretty good summary of what Title Fight and this album are all about. The song opens up with a stomp evoking imagery of a room full of kids moshing as if they were listening to straight up hardcore. After what may damn well be one of the catchiest riffs I've ever heard, the song kicks into overdrive and speeds up, the lyrics painting a scene of a relationship falling apart. Not quite unblazened territory for the genre, but Title Fight approaches it with wit and charm and makes you forget that you've probably heard the same story in about a million other songs.
All in all, this album seriously rules, and i would recommend it for anyone who listens to Hardcore, Pop-Punk, or good old fashioned Emo from the 90's
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