Circles

Lay of the Land [7 inch] (2009)

Brian Shultz

Circles provide two of their best songs to date on their newest single for Silly Girl Records.

Though backed by a label whose name is clearly paying tribute to Descendents, Circles contine writing more serious-sounding, super melodic hardcore. "Lay of the Land" and "The Lives of Others" are two superb, Dag Nasty-nodding songs with a clean and completely understandable, slightly raspy vocal delivery and totally DN-esque guitar tones (especially in the restrained opening riffs of "Lay of the Land"). "The Lives of Others" has a wonderfully dynamic stop-start towards the end and both have DN's lyrical vibe too, exploring introspective critiques and themes. It's interesting how the bands whose Circles members derive from (Blue Monday, ON, Keep It Clear) ended up writing far more melodic material here than any of those bands -- even beyond what, say, Sinking Ships was doing before their demise.

Nonetheless, this pair of three-minute jams is very, very solid all the same and I'm looking forward to a hopeful full-length from them, or at least a longer EP.

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Lay of the Land