There may be a shaky timidity in his voice that recall some to hear Conner Oberst? but Patrick Stickles coughs up more raunch and gnarl through his pipes so that comparison is somewhat debatable. Stickles fronts the New Jersey outfit that resembles more 90s low-fi, alt-rock than Bright Eyes and in their short-lived existence, Titus Andronicus have constructed two solid documents that accurately reflect their influence by that sound and now with their sophomore release, their control over it. With The Monitor, Stickles continues with his witty lyrical approach by dropping in some history lessons mixed with plenty of angst and dismay but where The Airing of Grievances provided more literary references, the new album's theme centers around the Civil War era and the band's home state of New Jersey. The conflict emerges on the opening track with Stickles' character coming to grips with the realization that his attempt to free himself from a suburban Jersey life(a subject expressed in their previous record) was only a delusional ploy to recreate it somewhere else. And throughout the The Monitor, as homage is continually paid to both old America and the Garden State, Stickles fights fervently with the imperfections of his home and perhaps, himself, but in the end chooses to embrace them for the ideals from which they were born and more importantly, because he is aware of his own accountability in those shortcomings.

The new album makes intelligent use of its guest appearances that include Cassie Ramone from Vivian Girls?, Craig Finn from The Hold Steady and Jenn Wasner from Wye Oak, who each represent a Civil War personality on an album that also introduces new instrumentation, brass and bagpipes. Springsteen gets honorable mentions in the album's opener as well as the ending track, "The Battle of Hampton Roads," which is a 14-minute wake-up call sequed from Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address in 1861. The song builds up steadily with distorted riffs, drums and Stickles' scratchy, yet sympathetic croons and in its diminuendo, compliments the feedback of guitars with some effective brass that eventually reduces to a set of bagpipes. Altogether, it sounds like a battle hymn for the modern Celtic rock and punk age before breaking back into familiar Titus territory.

In its entirety, The Monitor is a solid listen and if you think the given rank is somewhat high for an album that hasn't really broken new ground in the contemporary world of indie music(there are no synths, no digitally compressed plug-ins, no modern folk, no stuffed animal suits and sometimes, no class...see below), then be reminded of a time back in the 1990s when college radio and even 120-minutes were dominating the underground music circuit with plenty of garage rock bands and you'll think of this group and remember this sound. And because the whole Civil War concept and lit-major attributes sound like Titus straddles the high horse of pretension, be it known that while their band name is the same as Shakespeare's absurd, over-the-top tragedy, their debut was entitled after a Seinfeld episode and Stickles speaks numerous times on the subject of drinking/smoking in excess, masturbation and of course his own self-deprectation. Whatever snobbery comes off in their work can only be dismissed with such low brow allusions. What ultimately remains are two records in Titus' young collection that have music enthusiasts already anticipating their third release and what lies ahead in their career.