Thursday 3 September 2009

Review - Title Fight - The Last Thing You Forget

Title Fight - The Last Thing You Forget

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8 out of 10

I am massively becoming a fan of Run For Cover Records. Firstly they introduce me to Transit (see review), and now they come out with Title Fight, a band who are the musical equivalent of getting head-butted in the face, but in a good way.

To clear this up, The Last Thing You Forget contains 4 new songs, as well as all the bands previous releases, a 7" and a split EP. So the bulk of this review will focus on the new material.

So 4 songs, clocking in at 8:37 seconds, pretty easy review right? Well yes it is. Here's my review: this is good, you should buy it. Job done.

What surprises me, and in my view differentiates good and bad in this genre, is the strength of the lyrics. Title Fight delivers in this department and it really sets them apart. In two minutes you aren't going to reinvent the wheel, I'm not expecting Proustian prose style or Kafka-esque story telling, but taking time to avoid lazy rhymes and really nailing your lyrics is important. So when they pull "You're a match that can't be lit/Spark a flame, burn infinite" out of the bag on album opener Symmetry I can't help but smile.

This is a fast, intense (need a third synonym - Shift-F7), immediate piece of rock music, but it isn't mindless. It's not fast for the sake of being fast and it benefits from some really neat and clean production work. You want lyrics to shout back at the speakers, you got it. You want rhythms you won't forget, it's all here.

The rest of the album is OK, it's great for completists and it is nice to hear how a band has progressed which they quite clearly have. And it is not a bad sign at all that the 4 best songs on the album are the 4 new ones, in fact I would say that bodes incredibly well. That's not to say that songs like Evander and Anaconda Sniper are bad songs, in fact they are pretty damn good, but when you compare them to Symmetry or No-one Stays At The Top Forever it is clear that Title Fight are only improving with time.

Listen: www.myspace.com/titlefight

Tracklist:
1. Symmetry
2. Introvert
3. No-one Stays At The Top Forever
4. Memorial Field
5. Loud And Clear
6. Youreyeah
7. Room 200
8. Evander
9. Anaconda Sniper
10. Goldwaite
11. Neck Deep
12. Western Haikus

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