I never had Idles down as a great Bristol band, I confess. In fact, I never had them down as very much of anything at all. Through occasional and accidental contact, I associated the quintet with a cadre of unlovely groups – Sleaford Mods, Shame, Soft Play (formerly Slaves), Viagra Boys – that emerged in the 2010s and made shouty, angry music which wanted to Say Something Important about our times, most of it pretty obvious and deeply depressing. Idles had a song called ‘I’m Scum’. It was a hard pass from me – more or less sight unseen.

Turns out I got it wrong; or perhaps Idles got it wrong. In any case, we’ve both changed our tune. Their last album, Crawler, turned the tables on that splenetic politico-punk in favour of something considerably more personal, poetic and musically eclectic. If there was a flaw, it was that Crawler felt overly long and scattershot, too wilfully trying to upend audience expectations.

On their fifth album, that disruptive tendency has settled into lean, focused confidence. Deploying the gut-punch sonics of hip-hop and its sparse immediacy as a guiding principle, Idles now sound like a great Bristol band, deserving of mention in a lineage which includes the Pop Group, Rip Pig + Panic, Portishead, Massive Attack, Flying Saucer Attack, Head, the Blue Aeroplanes and, scrumping with menaces just outside the city limits, the Wurzels.

What is the criteria for entry into the West Country Hall of Fame? Hard to define, exactly, but it requires a promiscuous musical ear, usually encompassing early punk and post-punk, soul, hip-hop, reggae, dub and jazz, with a flavouring of orchestral elegance. Also desirable is the ability to hold two apparently contradictory views at once: to balance an open mind with intractable obstinacy and blunt nihilism with a utopian sense of what might be possible.

QOSHE - Why I was wrong to think Idles obvious and depressing - Graeme Thomson
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Why I was wrong to think Idles obvious and depressing

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15.02.2024

I never had Idles down as a great Bristol band, I confess. In fact, I never had them down as very much of anything at all. Through occasional and accidental contact, I associated the quintet with a cadre of unlovely groups – Sleaford Mods, Shame, Soft Play (formerly Slaves), Viagra Boys – that emerged in the 2010s and made shouty, angry music which wanted to Say Something Important about our times, most of it pretty obvious and deeply depressing. Idles had a........

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