The wild charm of Idles’ debut Brutalism (2017) could be both its greatest strength and its most limiting flaw, a band delivering relentless post-punk invective with a systemic edge. Now, with a fifth album on the horizon, Idles still stands tall. The spark lives in the untamed energy of the interior world and the community that fuels it, from personal battles to political urgency, and in the way the band reshapes its sound. This time the collaboration with Nigel Godrich, the renowned producer long associated with Radiohead, marks a fresh turn in their sonic landscape through the project Tangk.
Its footprint is evident from the album’s opening track titled Idea 01, a moment that recalls Radiohead in mood and piano texture, with Joe Talbot delivering a quiet, almost ghostly presence. Yet the record soon reveals the surge of energy that defines Idles, especially on the following track Gift Horse. There the bass grows heavy, the guitar cuts through with a jagged edge, and the shouted chorus hits like a blunt blow to the face, reuniting the band with its signature rasping core.
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The album alternates between explosive bursts and introspective detours, a dynamic that is not new but is carried broadly across the whole work. Godrich’s influence is especially felt in the expansion of sonic palette: the drone-like hum that surrounds Pop Pop Pop on a relentless rhythmic base, the piano and threatening swells that color the ache of unrequited love in A Gospel, and the dizzying reverberation of Roy. The latter can feel heavy and risks tipping into excessive grandeur, something that also colors the epic turn of Jungle, where the band trims the already raw tribal cadence in favor of echoes of Bo Diddley that once powered the song.
The slower, less visceral lane holds one of the standout tracks, Grace, with a sinuous melody brushing against hypnotic percussion and a growing chorus of guitars. The video features Chris Martin, adding a different texture to Talbot’s confession of seeking grace and purity. The line about love driving the equation threads through the album, connecting it to the broader cancionero. In another intensely sonic moment, Hall & Oates is invoked as a metaphor for tender emotion, pointing to how intimate sound can feel like a whispered admission when a lover draws near.
Idles, fierce and tender at once, create an album marked by bold risks that sometimes miss the mark, yet reveal a fearless creative spirit. It offers several tracks that could stand with the band’s best moments in concert, including sultry numbers such as Dancer, which shares a surprising kinship with LCD Soundsystem. With the new tour ahead and tickets already selling fast, fans can expect a live show that mirrors the album’s heat and depth, delivering the same visceral impact that defined their earlier performances at venues like the Sant Jordi Club.