It’s been all quiet on the Titus Andronicus front in the years since their 2019 album An Obelisk … until today (June 14). The Patrick Stickles-led rock project’s new cover of a certain 1982 Cock Sparrer tune speaks for itself: “We’re Coming Back.” Between that title and the accompanying music video, you can bet the band’s seventh album is on the way, although for now, all they have for us in place of any official confirmation is a sly wink.
“All I can tell you right now is that Cock Sparrer gave us the most open-hearted and uplifting song in all of British punk’s second wave, perhaps even of any wave, foreign or domestic,” says Stickles of the cover. “I have wept to this song many times over the years, and it is a joy to share our version with the world, especially since it afforded me the opportunity to work once again with the inimitable Ray Concepcion.”
The band’s cinematic “We’re Coming Back” video, written by and starring Stickles, and lensed by Concepcion, plays like a training montage: Stickles gets some exercise (both by shooting hoops and signing/mailing off records), fixes up the old tour van, tries to cut down on his drinking and smoking (with mixed results) and develop healthier habits, studies film of past performances, and then punctuates it all with a Rocky-style fist pump.
“I do not claim to be any kind of athlete,” Stickles continues, “and after three intense days of shooting this video, I have been, and continue to be, more sore than ever before. It’s rough getting old, but I have never shied from suffering for my art, nor do I intend to pursue a path of such cowardice in the future.”
Of what’s next for Titus Andronicus, Stickles simply says, “It’s right there in the title. There’s nothing more to say … we’re coming back.” The “To be continued” that appears briefly at the end of the band’s “We’re Coming Back” video underscores the obvious.
Last fall, Titus Andronicus marked the belated (thanks, COVID) 10th anniversary of their 2010 classic The Monitor, reissuing the album via XL Recordings.
Watch the band’s “We’re Coming Back” video (and listen to a 2016 session from the Paste archives) below.