Review Summary: Just a single leaf...
It's a weird experience listening to Title Fight's music on shuffle - one moment you're listening to average Pop Punk ("The Last Thing You Forget"), followed by decent but non-exceptional Shoegaze ("Hyperview"). The high point of listening to the band's discography would be any time a track plays from "Floral Green", an Emo-tinged Punk album which is quite possibly their best effort.
The band is led by two very different vocalists - Ned Russin, present on most tracks with his gritty and energetic delivery, and Jamie Rhoden, whose smoother voice complements the reflective nature of many tracks here. Given this, Russin leads the more heavy, up-tempo tracks on this record, whereas Rhoden leads the more reflective, slow tracks, resulting in enough contrast between one song and the next to make this record their most engaging listen to date. The overall songwriting here is clearly influenced by 90's rock, with a mix of aggressive and melodic guitarwork as one would expect from Emo, Punk and to a lesser extent, Grunge and Shoegaze. What the band does here is hardly unique, but the excellent execution of previously done ideas makes up for this.
The tracks here seem determined to explore as many areas of Punk as possible in one album without sounding incoherent, although the huge contrast means the album does sound a little less coherent than would be ideal. In tracks like "Numb, But I Still Feel It", one hears Melodic Hardcore with guitar work slightly reminiscent of early Foo Fighters. Two tracks later, "Like a Ritual" and "Secret Society" are more rowdy Punk rock tracks, focusing on thematic guitar leads and heavy, driving basslines. When the slow, emotionally heavy "Head in the Ceiling Fan" follows these tracks, Shoegaze elements enter the mix. In some ways, this variation is a good thing, seeing as it's probably part of what keeps the album fresh on repeat listens.
The way this album closes is simply phenomenal, with its final two tracks primarily featuring Rhoden's vocals. "Lefty" and "In-Between" both showcase effect-laden guitars accompanied by Rhoden's dreary yet chilling vocal delivery, which work together to leave a feeling of incompleteness with the listener. The opening sections in both these tracks are sonic nostalgia - echoey guitars playing chords that are dissonant not only in music theory terms, but also in the way they inspire both happiness and sadness. "Lefty"'s lyrics illustrate the emotion behind the track really well: "Feel the growing pains/It means you're growing up too fast".
Floral Green isn't unique, nor totally coherent when taken as a whole. However, the variation and quality of the songwriting here is excellent in its own right, and makes this album excellent.
