The Weekend Review: August 2012 Report

The Circle in the Square (Flobots)

Released: August 28, 2012

Rating:  3.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “The Circle in the Square” & “Run (Run Run Run)”

The Flobots’ latest release has continued the downward sales trend since their breakthrough success with 2008’s Fights With Tools.  Still, the Flobots bring their breakneck speed, frustration, and energy to The Circle in the Square, combining rock music instruments with a rap artist’s approach to lyrics and vocals.  Where the album perhaps falls short is in its overall artfulness: there was a unique sense of poeticism on Fights With Tools that is achieved only briefly on this new album, and there are stretches when it feels entirely protest-driven in the extreme, sounding the call to action over and over.  This sense of mission also provides for some of the best, most catchy and energizing moments on the album, such as during “Run (Run Run Run)” when Jamie Laurie sings the refrain: “If the sun will rise even one more time, so will I, so will I!”

This is one in a series of acoustic cover songs, original music, and free mp3 downloads here on the Laptop Sessions Music Video Blog.

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