Having trouble waking up of a morning? Yeah, us too. Suggested remedy: gaffer tape your headphones to your ears, playlist this album by discordant New Jersey country-punks Titus Andronicus up on your iPod, set the alarm for just before you need to be up and nestle down in the brace position. By the time ‘Fear & Loathing In Mahwah, NJ’ has erupted with a splintering “FUUUUCK YOU!” holler and is raining down like, not so much cats and dogs, but Sid Viciouses and Shane McGowans, you’ll either still be frantically trying to fight your way out of your duvet like a cartoon brawl or brushing the plasterboard off your shoulders in your confused flatmate’s/sister’s/elderly neighbour’s room. Either way you’ll be awake. This debut album is so chocked full of that elusive quality bled profusely by the living, breathing, violently jerking live garage band feeding off the static hum of overdriven amplification and searing bodies in close proximity, all too often untapped in recorded music. A visceral blend of traditional tankard-swinging folk, American rock n roll, country, punk and, for frosting, shoegaze this is music that is all around you at once, working its tentacles around your helpless limbs and pulling you in. It owes a reasonable amount to, or is reminiscent of at least, Conor Obert’s distortion blitz Bright Eyes side project Desaparecidos, in temperament especially, but over these non-relenting 9 tracks they also recall Ryan Adams (‘No Future Pt. 1’), Pixies (‘Arms Against Atrophy’), ‘Incesticide’ Nirvana with added accordion (‘Titus Andronicus’), The Pogues jamming with The Hold Steady (‘No Future Pt. 2’) and Trail Of Dead with The Arcade Fire (‘Albert Camus’). An intoxicating, instant, gratifying hit.