Name: The Will to Live
Brand: Titus Andronicus

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

MRG808LP

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Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: Yes

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Triple Gatefold Jacket, Side D Etching

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Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2022-09-30

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

673855080819

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Total Cap

2 / Black / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

MRG808RT

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Blue

Aqua / Tangerine Galaxy

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Rough Trade Exclusive: Yes

Extended format: Yes

Housed in Triple Gatefold Sleeve with Etched D-Side

Merge

0673855080833

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "0673855080833"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

2 / Blue / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: Yes / Signed copies: No

MRG808CD

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "MRG808CD"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Download code: No

673855080826

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "673855080826"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

MRG808PV

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "MRG808PV"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Silver

Silver / Black Galaxy Vinyl

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Indie Exclusive, Triple Gatefold Jacket, Side D Etching

673855080802

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2 / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / Silver

Artist

Titus Andronicus

Genre US

Rock-Pop

Label US

Merge Records

Titus Andronicus is a US indie rock/punk rock band from Glen Rock, New Jersey. Founded in 2005, the band consists of Liam Betson on baritone guitar and vocals, Andrew Cedermark on guitar, keyboard, and vocals, Ian Graetzer on bass guitar, Chris Wilson on drums, Patrick Stickles on vocals, guitar, keyboard, and harmonica, and Dan Tews on guitar, keyboard, and vocals.

With their unique blend of indie rock and punk rock influences, Titus Andronicus has gained a dedicated following since their formation. Hailing from Glen Rock in New Jersey [and formed in 2005], the band has been making waves with their energetic live performances and thought-provoking lyrics.

Their lineup includes Liam Betson providing his distinct baritone guitar sound along with powerful vocals. Andrew Cedermark adds his skills on the guitar as well as keyboards while also contributing to the vocal harmonies. Ian Graetzer holds down the low end with his bass guitar skills while Chris Wilson keeps things tight with his drumming expertise. Frontman Patrick Stickles takes charge of lead vocals while also showcasing his talents on various instruments including the guitar and harmonica. Lastly but not leastly we have Dan Tews who brings additional depth to the band's sound through his contributions on both guitars and keyboards.

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The Will to Live was produced by Titus Andronicus singer-songwriter Patrick Stickles and Canadian icon Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen, The Whole Nine Yards) at the latter’s Hotel 2 Tango recording studio in Montreal. Drawing on maximalist rock epics from Who’s Next to Hysteria, Bilerman and Stickles have crafted the richest, densest, and hardest hitting sound for Titus Andronicus yet. All at once, the record matches the sprawl and scope of the band’s most celebrated work, while also honing their ambitious attack to greater effect than ever before. “It may strike some as ironic we had to go to Canada to record our equivalent to Born in the USA,” quips Stickles, “but the pursuit of Ultimate Rock knows no borders.”

For his recent stretch of personal stability, he credits a newfound domestic bliss and steadfast mental health regimen (“Lamictal is a hell of a drug”) as well as the endurance of what has become the longest-running consistent lineup of Titus Andronicus—Liam Betson on guitar, R.J. Gordon on bass, and Chris Wilson on drums. On the crueler side of the coin, however, The Will to Live was created in large part as an attempt to process the untimely 2021 death of Matt “Money” Miller, the founding keyboardist of the band and Stickles’ closest cousin. Stickles explains: “The passing of my dearest friend forced me to recognize not only the precious and fragile nature of life, but also the interconnectivity of all life. Loved ones we have lost are really not lost at all, as they, and we still living, are all component pieces of a far larger continuous organism, which both precedes and succeeds our illusory individual selves, united through time by (you guessed it) the will to live.”

“Naturally, though, our long-suffering narrator can only arrive at this conclusion through a painful and arduous odyssey through Hell itself,” he qualifies. “This is a Titus Andronicus record, after all.”

When Titus Andronicus made their long-awaited return to the stage in 2021, it was to celebrate the anniversary of their landmark breakthrough The Monitor, and the act of playing that material before an ecstatic audience left the band determined to deliver an album that would reach for those same lofty heights, relying this time less on the reckless fire of youth and more on the experience and perspective at which a band only arrives with a thousand shows under their belt. Through this golden ratio, Titus Andronicus have arrived at the peak of their creative powers. From its adrenalizing opening instrumental “My Mother Is Going to Kill Me” to its wistful closing benediction “69 Stones,”

The Will to Live conjures a vast landscape and sends the listener on a rocket ride from peak to vertiginous peak. Rock fans will find themselves a feast, whether they crave barn-burning rock anthems such as “(I’m) Screwed” and “All Through the Night,” rapid-fire lyrical gymnastics (“Baby Crazy”), symphonic punk throwdowns (“Dead Meat”), or an adventurous excursion into the darkness that delivers thrills as it breezes boldly past the seven-minute mark, “An Anomaly.”

As if that wasn’t enough gas for the tank, The Will to Live features sterling contributions from members of the Hold Steady, Arcade Fire, and the E Street Band, as well as duets with the aforementioned Betson, former Titus Andronicus drummer Eric Harm, and Josée Caron of the Canadian rock band Partner.

The album comes packaged with gorgeous triple-gatefold artwork by illustrious illustrator Nicole Rifkin, a Hieronymus Bosch–inspired triptych which mirrors the three-part structure of the narrator’s perilous voyage across the corresponding three sides of vinyl. All together, this esteemed ensemble, with Stickles and Bilerman determined and defiant at the helm, have found The Will to Live—now, the question is… will you?

The Will to Live

Music US

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