Music for Justice: Flobots release an incredible album, Fight With Tools

What happens when you mix a violinist, trumpeter, and groove rhythm musicians with a pair of talented emcees able to spin and wrap words and sounds in a package of progressive rap music? You get an up and coming musical group called the Flobots from Colorado that you should be listening to.

By now, perhaps, you are wondering "Why a music review on the Service-Learning website?" The answer is that part of the work that is done in the Service-Learning Center is to equip students, faculty, staff, and community members with the tools to repair relationships and seek a deeper understanding of one another as we serve and learn with and from each another. In short, in the Service-Learning Center at Calvin College, we are about the business of seeking justice . Flobots' new album, called Fight With Tools, is an innovative blend of sounds driven by thoughtful lyrical rhymes and rhythms that bear witness to the work of justice in the world.

Set to the tone of urgency and outrage, the lyrics from the Flobots album exhort us to reflect and think critically about the status quo and systems that prop up our society. On a mission for peace and restoration, hope and faith remain key themes laced throughout the album. In this society filled with noise and sound bytes, the Flobots album is distinctive for its intelligent use of social commentary for the purpose of change. A popular song from the album is called, "Handlebars," which juxtaposes the path of greed and materialistic violence against that of peace and justice. But digging still deeper into the track list reveals a wealth of sound and commentary that will challenge and refresh those committed to critical thinking. With such an incredible lyrical ballad to introduce the album listeners are primed for a meaningful experience.

"There's a war going on for your mind
Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks
Cover girl cutouts throw up pop-up ads
Infecting victims with silicone shrapnel
Worldwide passenger pigeons deploy paratroopers
Now it's raining pornography
Lovers take shelter
Post-production debutantes pursue you in nascar chariots
They construct ransom letters from biblical passages and bleed mascara into holy water supplies

There's a war going on for your mind
Industry insiders slang test tube babies to corporate crackheads
They flash logos and blast ghettos
Their embroidered neckties say "stop snitchin'"
Conscious rappers and whistleblowers get stitches made of acupuncture needles and marionette strings

There is a war going on for your mind
Professional wrestlers and vice presidents want you to believe them
The desert sky is their bluescreen
They superimpose explosions
They shout at you
"pay no attention to the men behind the barbed curtain
Nor the craters beneath the draped flags
Those hoods are there for your protection
And meteors these days are the size of corpses"

From first to last this is a great album. If you are concerned about the work of justice and critical thought, and looking for some truly original and talented musicianship, then this is an a album that you need to check out. Click here to preview some of the Flobots' music.