"I love Rock 'N' Roll — just regular LP's give me a lot of pleasure. I have another, equally strong love for pieces of art that have different standards in place for, like, what makes them excellent, you know? I wanted to work on a macro level and a micro level. You can enjoy [this album] for three minutes and it's just a good time... or you can invest 93 minutes and hopefully, you'll get something else out of it," Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles recently lamented to Grantland concerning their just-announced Punk-Rock Opera, The Most Lamentable Tragedy (TMLT). It was initially announced in a since long-dated September 2013 interview, wherein Stickles summarized it as the story of a "young man, his doppelgänger, and a superhuman race [that] has this curse upon it;" Grantland additionally mentions that in its early gestative phases, was to consist of 30 tracks and would be accompanied by a companion film upon its planned November 2014 release. The Most Lamentable Tragedy was co-produced by frequent collaborator Kevin McMahon and lead guitarist Adam Reich and in addition to +@'s long-time contained rhythm section, includes musical accompaniment pianist Elio DeLuca, violinist Owen Pallett, and a cast of New York's finest aggression-filled Punk Rock players hand-plucked from The So So Glos, Baked, Bad Credit No Credit, Lost Boy?, etc.

"The central narrative of TMLT concerns an unnamed protagonist whom we meet in deep despair. Following an encounter with his own doppelgänger (an enigmatic stranger, identical in appearance though opposite in disposition), long held secrets are revealed, sending our protagonist on a transformative odyssey, through past lives and new loves, to the shocking revelation that the very thing that sustains him may be the thing to destroy him," reads The Most Lamentable Tragedy's press release album summary, which is indeed, comparable to a full-throttle Action blockbuster tagline. +@'s new-found label home, Merge Records let loose the five act album's lead-off single, "Dimed Out" this past Thursday afternoon; "Then I make them hand over the white cloud and then they're leaving me with a polite bow and I've got plans I haven't time to write down... I only like it when it's dimed out," Patrick Stickles intensely wails. The Most Lamentable Tragedy is currently available, in all of its 28-track 93-minute Punk Rock magnum opus glory, for pre-order from Merge Records' web-store in equally lengthy 2-CD or 3-LP formats, ranging from $14.98 to 44.98 39.74. While we wait for TMLT's impending July 28th release, Titus Andronicus' aptly-named +@ #SEVENSEVENINCHES +@ mail-order series is still on-going, although its 400 subscriptions have been maxed out.