“Vulnerability is our armour.” Joe Talbot said this in a recent interview with The Guardian. This statement has me asking myself what are they protecting themselves against. Their new album attempts to explain that. Instead of fighting the ills of the world, the answer is that they are fighting their detractors. In an interview with the NME Joe Talbot states “With this album, instead of clamming up and becoming defensive, I’ve gone, ‘No, I need to be concise and clear in my message, which is: there is a class war and the working classes are being chewed up and spat out by the one per cent.” That’s a good concept for a song. Maybe three but an album full of this is tiring.
Thanks to there great first two albums, Brutalism and Joy is An Act Of Resistance, and an amazing live show, Idles has created a loyal fan base who love their messages of self-love and defiance but their upper middle class upbringing is beginning ring false with people who grew up working class. How can people who grew up upper middle class speak for the impoverished? Instead of question that in their music, Idles decides to double down in their working class cosplay on ‘Ultra Mono’. This is where the central problem with the new album lies. They are resting their laurels on this message to the point that if you have a problem with it, you’ll then have a problem with the music. They are a great band and this shows on song like the opener ‘War’ which is just an undeniable assault of an intro but as the album goes on, it just sounds like catchphrase after catchphrase and that turns something that could be interesting sour. Musically, the album is not very adventurous which is not necessarily a requirement but it could have salvaged the lyrical content. Granted, simple lyrics are the touchstone of punk music but even within that framework, a lot can be achieved as a band like The Clash showed on an album like London Calling. Lyrics like “The government hate the poor” are like saying Oil companies has been actively working against climate change measures for decades. We know this, at least say it in an interesting way but instead we have a song about anxiety titled ‘Anxiety’ and a song about consent titled ‘Ne Touche Pas Moi’
In an essay written for The Social the leader singer of the band Fat White Family, Lias Saoudi, says about Idles “This is a band that purports to be about unity and zero tolerance of prejudice of any kind, yet feels it necessary to pour scorn on anyone that comes from a small town that hasn’t quite managed to adopt the same middle class metropolitan point of view they call their own.” While I don’t whole heartedly agree with these comments, this is a result on their writing not having any nuance. I highly doubt IDLES and empathetic of working class people but they don’t give themselves space to address these issues. The failure of Idles is the failure of white liberals as a whole. It is not completely ineffective but it pats itself on the back too much to truly be effective while unknowingly maintaining the status quo. Saying racism is bad won’t stop racism. Decrying homophobia won’t stop it. You shouldn’t be heralded for finger pointing but for action but instead they want to make excuses for not having a female artist on tour with them because she, Nadinhe Shah, was too expensive. If they didn’t hold themselves to this high standard, this wouldn’t matter but they do and as such it does.
There is something to be said about the fact that in these highly political times, they are talking about issues that are urgent but right now, who isn’t. This isn’t special anymore and other people who are speaking about these issues are directly affected and in turn speak more thoroughly. Kano’s album ‘Hoodies All Summer’ is a great example of this. This makes their one dimensionality more apparent on this record than ever before. You could reorder the track list of this album and it will still sound the same. The earlier albums were blessed with having no or less context preceding them than this has and it hurts the record. Whether it’s their spat with Sleaford Mods or Fat White Family. Their press run is not helping. Every interview is a ‘woe is me’ fest of how everybody hates them.
As an exercise in self-love and resilience, what Idles provides is hard to match but it is being sold as something much more than what it is and the music suffers as a result. Their intentions are good but execution is key. It is a lot of finger pointing while not adding much to add to the multiple conversations that are being had currently. If you like what Idles have done before then you will like or even love this album. If you don’t or have experienced any part of this insufferable press run then it will be hit or miss. On their third album in, the band already sounds like caricatures of themselves and with an echo chamber of a fans and media, a change in direction is probably unlikely. Here’s to hoping that they prove me wrong.
7/10
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