Flobots Survival Story

Let me get my praise for Flobots out of the way early.

There are a few tracks (well, two tracks) that work pretty well. By The Time You Get This Message and Airplane Mode both have pretty good flow and instrumentation. They are above-average songs with above-average beats. They will probably make you bang your head. Any lyrical missteps come quickly and lightly enough to be forgotten. However, as these songs are in the middle of the album, one would be forgiven for not sticking around long enough to find them.

Now then.

The latest album from Flobots, A.K.A "Rage Against The Machine-lite," A.K.A "Baby's First Coup Album," A.K.A "Rap for 9th Graders Who Like Cake" is a big pile of unfocused, vaguely political bullshit rap-rock for a fan base that doesn’t exist past age 16.

Quick story: I used to work at a restaurant. Sometimes, when I was at work, a group of lawyers would come in and eat. While there, they would “talk” about politics. What I mean by this is that they would spout off the most half-assed, cliche commentary on current events that anyone has ever heard. They spoke loudly, like idiots often do, about things which they very clearly had no idea about outside of the sound bite someone told them. They were the worst kind of dangerous, because they are half-informed. At least the uninformed keep their mouths shut (They should have spent more time with the Ministry).

Survival Story is like this. The Flobots message is anti-war, anti-government, standard teenage rallying cry of “Let’s smash the system” with no clear idea or message past that. To cop a line from the Joker, they are like dogs chasing cars, with no idea what to do with one if caught. But at least the Joker was interesting.

Flobots are benign and irritating. They are a tea-bagger rally. Do not want. Avoid at all costs.

Unless, you know, you are 14 and you like rap-rock.

Then, by all means, suck this swill down.