The Last Thing You Forget

Title Fight's The Last Thing You Forget is one of the best punk albums I've heard in a while. Incredibly catchy, energetic, and addictive, I'd recommend listening to it on the Metro on your morning commute. It screams of being young and feeling alive. You'll feel like you can conquer the world.

"Symmetry" is rapidly guitar-driven, with perfectly controlled yells augmenting the already fantastic vocals. The varying tempos of "Memorial Field" complement its biting lyrics," You said the words in my mouth were more alive than I was." "Loud and Clear" is amazingly melodic; it's close to being the perfect post-hardcore punk song. I love the muted vocals in the background toward the end. "Neck Deep" features overlapping vocals reminiscent of Taking back Sunday's "Cute Without the E."

However, for those looking for something new, this may not be your album. Title Fight makes no attempt to reinvent the wheel. They hold steady to the predictable formula established by melodic hardcore bands of the '90s, transitioning through the various tempos with the standard culminating guitar riff present in most songs.

This is not to say that "nothing new" is a bad thing. Sometimes predictable is good, if the predictable is exactly what I'm looking for. I was in late high school and college during melodic hardcore's heyday, so this album could very well have been the soundtrack to my formative young adult years. This genre of music has a way of instantly energizing the listener. The guitar riffs are uplifting, and yet there's a sense of rage in the vocals. Combine this contradiction of sound with a simplicity of structure, and you've got punk perfection, and Title Fight gets you there. Whether you're looking for a bit of nostalgia, or a solid example from the genre, Title Fight's latest effort gets a solid "A," and I had a lot of fun listening to it.

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