Title Fight’s “Hyperview”

Artist-Title Fight
Album- Hyperview
Released- February 3, 2015
Label- ANTI-

Website- http://titlefight.tumblr.com/

Hyperview, at first listen, can be very confusing for long time listeners of Title Fight. Right when you hear the opening track, you will doubt whether this is the right band or not. With the releases of Shed (2011) and Floral Green (2012), Title Fight had established their genre as a punk rock band, a melodic hardcore band or even an emo band; but never a shoe-gaze or dream pop type group. “Head in the Ceiling Fan” had dream pop elements, but maintained a strong punk presence. This whole album is straight up shoe-gaze. Their song “Your Pain is Mine Now” screams “Allison” by Slowdive, and you can’t get more shoe-gaze than Slowdive.

Fans of Title Fight might be bored or disappointed with this change. Harsh vocals are traded in for hushed tones. And yes, that means you will need lyrics to understand what they are saying. It’s far less aggressive from their previous albums, the closest they get is in “Rose of Sharon” but even that sounds so faint compared to previous records. Punk is all about immediacy and this album strays from that idea. Overall, after you get past all your preconceived notions of what Title Fight is and what they should be, you get a pretty solid album. You have to come into the album with an open mind to find the beauty in it; because once you do you will be in this trance. Songs like “New Vision,” sounds like the music grunge phased teens in the 90’s would listen to while smoking and staring off into the distance. Daria would have liked this album.

Hyperview is really a haze when you give it a straight through listen, going from the first to last tracks. The words are muffled and the sound is distorted, and it is up to you to find out what’s going on in the songs. It’s also very hard to remember some tracks on the album due to their similarities to others. Of course not all the songs sound same, but there is a lack of overall diversity in the production of the album. Also, the album has good songs but not great ones. Title Fight took a different direction with Hyperview and if they were going for a shoe-gaze album they got it. But if they were going for an amazing album, they missed the mark.

Reviewed by Brittany Robinson