If A Productive Cough sounded like Patrick Stickles trying way too hard and coming up way too short, An Obelisk sounds like nobody fucking bothered at all. Not even Bob Mould, who supposedly produced this record, because it sounds like crap. The flat-sounding generic rock production does nothing for the band, stripping away anything close to soul this songs could have. And Stickles, fronting Titus Andronicus' blandest line-up, shows up with his laziest batch of songs yet, gathering inspiration from the most boring aspects of the rock/blues heritage and the done-to-death punk-ish take, bringing nothing new to the table except for his bitter lyrics that, at this point, are devoid of charm and love. An Obelisk sounds like a record nobody wanted to record. Patrick Stickles, the band, Bob Mould, Merge Records... nobody wanted to do it. A sad end for Titus Andronicus' once bright looking decade.
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