Deluge Of Hipsters

Titus Andronicus “In A Big City”

I never connected with Titus Andronicus before I heard Local Business, or more specifically, this song. Their older stuff was far too Oberst-y for my taste, and I found myself in the vaguely uncomfortable position of greatly admiring them as people but feeling a little confused about what people were getting out of their music. I haven’t really changed my mind about those early records, but now I totally get the appeal of what Patrick Stickles has been doing all along. “In A Big City” is earnest and a little bratty, a slightly off-kilter anthem about growing up in the shadow of New York City. It’s specifically about being from New Jersey, but it’s close enough to the feelings I’ve had growing up in the Hudson Valley that it resonates with me in a huge way. But still, the Jersey-ness makes it a better song – it’s one thing to look on to The City as an outsider, and another thing to be some sort of underdog pariah. This is a song that draws on the underdog pop cultural mythology of Jersey, and the drama of it hinges on Stickles reckons with the way he is perceived in the context of where he’s from. This song is thrilling because he just owns it, and throws himself into the role of the heroic loser heading off to make his way in the cold, indifferent metropolis just across the river.

Buy it from Amazon.