No matter what type of music you like, it seems like someone’s got something to say. Whether it be about social injustice, political injustice, loss of freedom or a condition that the artist in question deems important, there’s a punk, a rocker, an emcee, a folkie and more lining up to talk about it. There is a “Message” annex of every genre of pop music and all of them utilize genre-specific variables as a vehicle to help drive them; be it beats, riffs or just melodic and instrumental clichés unique to a particular sound, groups use everything they can think of to draw particular listeners and speak specifically to them. That said, Flobots’ Fight With Tools might be the first album in history (certainly the first in memory) produced with a universally accessible political message that everyone can understand and relate to.
That message isn’t just one lip service track either; political, domestic and social unrest dominates the content of every track on Fight With Tools but the beauty of it is that it isn‘t limited to one form or voice. The album opens with the warning/manifesto “There’s A War Going On For Your Mind” that sets the tone of confrontational questioning, trepidation and disgust at the world government’s crooked schemes and laissez-faire attitude toward good ethics. No small task to undertake, but for the next eleven tracks, the group attempts to discover the source of every injustice its crosshairs fall upon, expose it and dissect it.
The thing of it is, the group includes elements of every musical genre it can think of in order to make the album inescapable. Hip hop is at the root of the album, but strains of classic strings, funk, alt-rock, and R&B all weigh in noticeably on every track – from Rage Against The Machine Bob Dylan to Al Green to Sly Stone to Billy Bragg to Public Enemy to James Brown – and ultimately produces music that can only be classified as the definition of “Message Music”. There’s no easy way to pin one genre or another to Fight With Tools; it all flows together with such mercurial ease that any lines that could’ve been there are rendered indistinguishable.
Because of that, it becomes necessary to judge the record on its own merits and those alone. The combination of all the aforementioned sounds in songs including “Mayday!!!.” “Same Thing,” Stand Up” and “Handlebars” is used to establish mood, develop it, and then rant and rave once the ideas and moods are firmly entrenched. The voices become utilitarian in the same way too; because each of Flobots’ four emcees are possessed of completely different styles, timbres, tones and deliveries, the tool for the job is the one that steps up. In order to deliver dramatic effect and relief, for example, the multi-syllable cram in the bridge of “Same Thing” gets broken and driven home by the husky growl, “I didn’t let ‘em but they did it indeed.”
In a lot of ways, the album feels very much like a dramatic production; each character steps up and delivers lines to drive the plot and make the sentiments expressed come across as being felt by many as opposed to just a single performer or a vocal duo.
As the record plays, the aesthetic of the delivery begins to feel very comforting because so many of the opinions expressed have been echoed by others on the street or in coffee shops in hushed tones. These are opinions and feelings that other people share and questions that lots of people are asking, but are reluctant to stand up and be heard on – the bravest might go so far as to blog it anonymously. Fight With Tools is a great record because it is brave; these are questions that everyone wants answers to but a lot of people don’t have the sack to ask. That, combined with a series of very bold statements (both musical and lyrical) is what makes Fight With Tools a record that everyone should hear.
Artist:
www.flobots.com
www.myspace.com/flobots
Album:
Flobots – Fight With Tools. Buy it NOW on Amazon.com!
