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The Circle in the Square

2012 studio album by Flobots

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ16954129 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Circle in the Square is the third full-length studio album by alternative hip-hop band Flobots. The album was released on August 28, 2012 and peaked at No. 198 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart. The Circle in the Square was released by Shanachie Records, unlike their first two albums which were released by Universal Republic. The album's title track, The Circle in the Square, was the only single from the album and was released on the Flobots official YouTube channel on July 11, 2012.

Reception

The Circle in the Square received mixed to positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the album holds a score of 66/100 based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Track listing

The lyrics say "The clock is now 11:55 on the big hand," which was the setting of the Doomsday Clock when the song was released, at "5 minutes to midnight".

Editorial summary

“The Circle in the Square” enters the record as 2012 studio album by Flobots. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Circle, Square and studio can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2012—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2012. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Circle, Square and studio.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Circle in the Square” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Circle, Square and studio provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16954129. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Circle in the Square”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Circle in the Square primary sources, The Circle in the Square archive and Circle research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Circle in the Square”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Circle in the Square” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.