Title Fight - Floral Green

Title Fight – Floral Green

It is hard to know where to start with this review. The hype associated with ‘Floral Green’, Title Fights’ sophomore studio LP was beyond all expectations. The subsequent ‘I’m more hardcore than you’ name calling when it leaked just made things worse. Before any of us had a half decent listen it was already laden down with a load of baggage it didn’t need.

Pushing that aside, ‘Floral Green’ is a good record, but not perhaps the one that a lot of people would have expected. Considering how far it has got them you would be forgiven for assuming that Title Fight would continue writing songs around the two minute mark, channelling the likes of Jawbreaker and Lifetime. Instead what they’ve done is write a record of more abstract, full bodied nature. Blending their sonic blueprint with a Mineral-esque approach.

The results of this speak for themselves. ‘Leaf’ is the album’s first stand out track, sounding like something that would have been at home on ‘The Last Thing You Forget’ with its big, raw voiced chorus. ‘Secret Society’ is a whole other ball game, combining the most in your face vocals of a Title Fight track to date with a big fist pumping riff. The Jawbreaker comparisons have been made plenty of times before but on this track (as well as ‘Calloused’) Title Fight’s place as the New York punk’s successors is clear. 

‘In-Between’ is another top quality effort, closing the album on a roomy, hypnotic note that highlights how far away from their ‘sound’ Title Fight have been willing to move. It isn’t ground-breaking but it is a serious departure from what went before. Across the record in general the production is excellent and the band sound tighter than ever. One of the greatest things about Title Fight is that, as anyone who has followed their progress for a while will tell you, they get better musically with every release. Here in particular the guitar work and vocals stand out.

‘Floral Green’ does, however, have one major weakness. Aside from the tracks mentioned above it doesn’t really stand out. While ‘Shed’ and ‘The Last Thing You Forget’ were a case of more killer than filler the opposite is true here. The filler is very good, with tracks such as ‘Make You Cry’ being easy to listen to and moderately catchy, but it doesn’t grab you like it should.  In hindsight the hype this record had to live up to was insurmountable. It is a very good album, with all the hallmarks of a band moving on and breaking out from the mould they built their success on. However the pattern Title Fight set for melodic hardcore has become so universal that at times ‘Floral Green’ will seem to many to be a little flat.

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