idles

We gotta be honest. There was some resistance to including ‘Crawler’ in our Top 10 of 2021. Not because it doesn’t 100% deserve it. Not because it hasn’t driven us all WILD. Not because our love for the band has diminished. But because ‘Brutalism’ (2017), ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’ (2018) and ‘Ultra Mono’ (2020) all made our Top 10 in their respective years. So, we’ve only taken one year off from them…and that’s only coz they didn’t put an album out!

Beneath familiar overarching themes of trauma, heartbreak and loss, the band juxtapose beauty and rage with humour and drama more impressively than ever before. Recorded with co-producers Kenny Beats (Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs) and their own guitarist Mark Bowen, they’ve uncovered the possibilities of what makes a bloody good IDLES song. We’re fittingly lured into ‘Crawler’ unhurriedly, with the mournful opener ‘MTT 420 RR’ which reveals the first disruption to normal proceedings when Joe starts to sing. Yep, you read right. He sings. And he sings tremendously too! In a proper dark Lanegan-esque way.

Once the new tone has been set, we’re thrown into a world of euphonious discordance - melodic post-punk, feverish rhythms, tense drone and unsettled timbres. They have nothing to prove and are afraid of nothing more than ever sounding enervated….or idle.

buddy: There was no doubt this was going to be my album of the year, from my very first (if ever so slightly tipsy) listen. On their blistering 4th LP we find them using harsher, heavier & denser textures than before. Experimenting with different sounds to open up a more diverse body of work. Showing influences of Electronica in 'MTT 420 RR', Grime 'Car Crash' to the soulful 'Bleachland Ballroom'. For me it's their best work to date, a truly outstanding record.