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Ragers are relative. Describing the new Title Tracks record, a press release from Windian Records in the label’s signature caps lock reads: “THE LP’S FIRST SINGLE ‘TURN YOUR FACE’ DEFINES THE SIMPLISTIC, MODERATE SOUND OF THIS BAND, POUNDING IT OUT IN A DESPERATE CALM.”
Desperate calm? Maybe compared to the rest of Windian’s punk-as-fuck roster. But “Turn Your Face” is actually Title Tracks at their loosest, loudest, and fastest. It’s nice and jangly, too—-not nearly as clean as the band’s sad-sack but sunny-sounding 2010 album It Was Easy, if just as sharply hooked. For Title Tracks, the biggest innovation might be the lumbering, declarative bass line; mastermind John Davis also seems to be over It Was Easy‘s near-pervasive heartbreak. “No one’s chasing you,” he sings in the chorus, “when they walk behind you.” The main touch point is still power-pop, but “Turn Your Face” is a more aggressive take on the genre. Think The Nerves.
The album is out April 19 on Ernest Jenning Record Co. The vinyl version is a co-release with Windian.