Titus Andronicus has read their philosophy and came out nihilist. There’s no point to life or pretending there’s a point in any of it. When life’s pointless, there’s nothing to lose or gain. That’s why it’s gotta be loud, destructive, fast and screaming into the void.

This band should suck on every conceivable level. Naming your group after a failed Shakespeare play that no scholar would seriously analyze is just getting your feet wet in the sea of crap.

Follow that with basement-quality recordings which distort the supposedly good lyrics to the point that’s no longer understandable and it’s time to take out the garbage.

Titus Andronicus doesn’t worry about masking their influences in their freshman album The Airing of Grievances.

Lead singer Patrick Stickles incoherently wails his lyrics like Conor Oberst, the impatient rawness is an ode to The Replacements, and what Jersey band hasn’t started their opening track with the roughly recorded vocal/guitar combo that The Wrens coined three decades ago? This band is doing nothing new.

Take all that – all the face-valued flaws – and give it a new world. With no losses or wins in sight, they’re not trying hide or prove anything. It’s a rock album in the truest form for the kids who refuse the 9 to 5 and the life of “no more cigarettes, no more having sex, no more drinking till you fall on the floor.” This, they scream in the most epic of ballads on their self-titled track, is the end of your life. It’s that raw, pure energy that is done so right that allows listeners to overlook their lack of originality and remind us of what we loved about rock in the first place.