Title Fight, Floral Green

The fact that Title Fight formed in 2003 has a lot to do with why their latest album, Floral Green, reminds me of high school. I’ll ignore the fact that these guys were in sixth grade at the time (and that I was already well into my college years) and move on to say that this second studio album from the Kingston, PA, band does well to send me back to the heady days of Friday night football games and summers with no responsibilities.

The album is built around the measured angst of the ’90s, the grungy guitar sounds bumping up against more poppy licks that blend pleasantly into an easily digestible but hearty aural stew.

The opening track, “Numb, But I Still Feel It,” bursts open with a repetitive but intoxicating guitar riff that lulled me into a peculiar sense of familiarity. I was sent back to the county roads of my youth, where my deviant buddies and I would crank the Foo Fighters (“This Is A Call” was always my favorite track) and waste some gas throwing dust to the West Texas wind.

The album charges on through the next few tracks, hitting a crescendo with the fourth track, “Secret Society.” If you’ve got three minutes, please check out the music video, one of the coolest I’ve seen in a while. Go on, I’ll wait…

Pretty great, right? It’s like Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino decided to get back together and made a short film about a preteen girl’s unrequited love. It’s this complete joy in the mix of chaos and carnage that kept me entertained for this ride.

Any great artist knows that power lies in contrasts, and the next track, “Head In The Ceiling Fan,” slows the action down to a crawl, allowing the listener to collect themselves, carried along on a current of meandering guitar plucks and minimal, sustained vocals.

The energy builds a little toward the end, but the back half of the album never quite catches up to the open. Floral Green is an album best listened to as a whole, a carefully crafted object that sits easily in the ears and pushes you to experience rather than just listen. Someone even got so wrapped up in this album they felt it necessary to plunk down $50K for it.

You can get the full experience for just $14 tomorrow night at Walters where you can catch Title Fight yourself, along with Pianos Become The Teeth, Single Mothers, and Power Trip, brought to the Bayou City courtesy of Hatetank Productions. I’ll be there, but I have to be home before midnight. It’s a school night.