Titus Andronicus detailed a new album, The Will To Live, due out on September 30 via Merge Records. The New Jersey rockers also shared the single, “(I’m) Screwed.”
“(I’m) Screwed” follows the previously released The Will To Live track, “We’re Coming Back.” The band led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Patrick Stickles headed to Canada to cut The Will To Live — the follow up to their 2019 LP An Obelisk — with producer Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen).
“It may strike some as ironic we had to go to Canada to record our equivalent to Born In The USA,” Stickles noted, “but the pursuit of Ultimate Rock knows no borders.”
The Will To Live is “an ambitious, forward-facing work which stands tall on the nexus of triumph and tragedy, fueled by newfound focus and clarity, showcasing a uniquely gifted rock ‘n’ roll band at the very peak of their creative powers,” a press release for the album stated. The “newfound focus and clarity” stems from Stickles “domestic bliss and steadfast mental health regimen” as well as the longest-running lineup the band has had to date with guitarist Liam Betson, bassist R.J. Gordon and drummer Chris Wilson.
The new record also sees Stickles reflecting on tragedy, namely the death of his cousin and founding Titus Andronicus keyboardist Matt “Money” Miller, as Patrick explained:
“Certain recent challenges, some unique to myself and some we have all shared, but particularly the passing of my dearest friend, have 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. Recognition of this self-evident truth demands that we extend the same empathy and compassion we would wish for ourselves outward to every living creature, even to those we would label our enemies, for we are all cells in the same body, sprung from a common womb, devoted to the common cause of survival.
Naturally, though, our long-suffering narrator can only arrive at this conclusion through a painful and arduous odyssey through Hell itself – this is a Titus Andronicus record, after all.”
Listeners meet the “narrator” Stickles speaks of in the new single “(I’m) Screwed,” which the singer-songwriter also spoke about.
“In ‘(I’m) Screwed,’ we are introduced to the narrator of The Will to Live at the moment he realizes the walls are closing in,” he said. “Be it real or imagined, he feels the pressure building on all sides, a feeling to which many of us can relate, I imagine. His faith and fortitude are tested like never before, and the narrative of the album will reveal whether that pressure crushes him or produces a diamond.”
“(I’m) Screwed” arrived along with a music video Ray Concepcion and featuring Titus Andronicus performing from a flatbed trailed in their native Glen Falls, New Jersey. Watch it below:
Titus Andronicus is hitting the road in North America around The Will To Live this fall. Check out their tour dates:
The Will To Live Tracklist:
- My Mother Is Going To Kill Me
- (I’m) Screwed
- I Can Not Be Satisfied
- Bridge and Tunnel
- Grey Goo
- Dead Meat
- An Anomaly
- Give Me Grief
- Baby Crazy
- All Through The Night
- We’re Coming Back
- 69 Stones
