- Opinion
- 12 Nov 21
IDLES Maintain Relentless Pace
None of the attempts to classify IDLES in terms of social class really comprehend them. Obsessing over that aspect overlooks a band who remain regimented, whilst distorting their own identity. Here eagerness of lyric is audaciously smeared with demented accompaniment, and perversely with more stress on melody. It’s a surprise and a relief when singer Joe Talbot wraps the record, groaning “In spite of it all/ Life is beautiful.”
For CRAWLER does what is says on the tin. The rapid 30 seconds of ‘Kelechi’ is a moaning vapidness, a damned trail head leading into the strummed entrance of ‘Progress’. The latter boasts a brief, Verve-like high, before trudging into the enveloping comedown of the record. Talbot practically oozes through producer Kenny Beats’ desk, nailing the comfortably odd balm of a drugged-out club; the magnetism and repulsion of it, avoiding daylight, sinking into a psychic haze.
The other IDLES bravely rally, until someone switches the lights off.
The Motown-style ‘The Beachland Ballroom’ and the industrial-tinged ‘The Wheel’ are trojan-horse feints at stadium singalongs, which is a fine trick. The happy hardcore call-out of ‘The New Sensation’ may bug their influential detractors, thanks to its clashing drumbeat and Rocky Horror Picture Show antics, though it’s all the better for it.
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Elsewhere, ‘Meds’ is driven mercilessly by Jon Beavis’ drums, dragging out a drugged-out populace – delirious on self-help and self-delusion – and dosing them with grindcore. Live, they will be a real force, if you can snatch a ticket.