It's often said that the only constant in life is change. As we face the inexorable march of time, we're confronted with certain things: What if our dreams really do come true? What if they're not necessarily all they're cracked up to be?
Such is the question posed by Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus, who in the past couple of years has gone from conflicted, anonymous punk who couldn't decide between his band and grad school to a conflicted, famous punk who can't decide if the life he's chosen is necessarily the life he should lead.
"In a Big City," the first single from Titus' new album Local Business, poses this question explicitly. While previous Titus Andronicus albums dealt with character studies and elliptical, metaphor-heavy lyrics -- their last record was about the Civil War, for crying out loud -- Local Business promises to offer a much, much higher degree of directness than Titus has ever given its listeners.
The coup of the presentation of "In a Big City" is surely its video, which displays the song's lyrics as well as a series of visual footnotes to help the viewer easily decode Titus' often reference-drenched lyrics. The song as well as a statement from the band premiered today on the band's Tumblr, and you can check out the video below.
Local Business is due out October 22nd on XL Recordings.
