Run, Awolnation’s second full-length, isn’t quite the monster breakthrough I had unreasonably hoped for. But it’s no slump, and when Aaron Bruno is on, he’s on.
Most of the album’s strongest tracks are the ones where the band’s trademark gritty screaming dance rock riffs are front and center, which also happen to be the first tracks that were released. Those first impressions can really misdirect the expectations of anyone hoping for it to pick up where the band left off with bangers like Sail and Burn It Down.
The slow-cooked opening title track seems to set the stage for an unhinged flurry of Bruno’s trademark madness, climaxing halfway through when the music drops out for a second behind a single word, spoken plainly: “Run.” A grimy, rude, repetitive riff then kicks in and stomps through the second half of the song. It’s sparse, with really just that one trick, so it feels like a prologue, a set up for something big and vicious. But that’s not where the album goes.
Run sounds less like 2011’s Megalithic Symphony than it sounds like an album that Portugal. The Man might make. And that’s the biggest surprise overall. Fat Face opens with a verse that could just
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