TANGK - Idles: Review
Review by Lav:
Idles' first two albums get better every time I hear them. They were capable of conjuring a sheer blunt force intensity that felt completely unmatched and I got hooked on the adrenaline rush that came along with listening to their music. It's probably no coincidence that my favorite songs from their following two albums Model Village and Car Crash, are the ones that most resemble that initial sound. To be fair to the band I don't think their 3rd or 4th albums are bad but too often it felt like their quest to expand their sound came up empty and the best moments saw the band relying on old staples. After coming away from the singles on this record pretty mixed I wasn't really sure what to expect from this new batch of tracks. Unfortunately, even though the potential they always flash is still there, this isn't exactly an improvement from the band.
The trio of singles from this record left me pretty confused. Dancer features James and Nancy from LCD Soundsystem, because fuck it why not. I wasn't particularly impressed by the song at first but it's grown on me a bit. I think the backing vocals being particularly obscured actually kind of work in weird contrast to the song's poppier sentimentalities. It's one of a few points on the record where something unique I'm enjoying about the album feels kind of unintentional.
The best of the singles was Grace, a track I still like a lot. The sharp-edged guitars in particular stick out to me especially the way they're warped out of proportion during the outro. It also has one of the best hooks on the record which makes particularly great use of Joe's voice. In contrast, I'm not crazy about the final single Gift Horse. I love some of the sonic elements of the song and the way its compositional shifting gives the song this unsettling intensity. Unfortunately, I think the song has a huge miss on the hook with repetition that just makes the song work less and less for me each time it's repeated.
I definitely want to give this record credit for its highlights, because they are here. Roy is a slower cut that works for me REALLY well. I think it may be one of their best slowed-down cuts to date. That starts with a world-class vocal performance from Joe Talbot who shows off a versatility I had no idea he possessed. The song also does a great job of setting up its most dramatic moments with murmuring momentum from the thick bassline and rumbling drums, it's a great song. In contrast, I also loved Hall & Oates which has a great surf-punky guitar riff played with Idles incessantly heavy rumbling tuning style. It sees the band getting back to their tongue-in-cheek sentimentalities on an absolute banger. I also enjoyed the same formula working to a similar effect on Gratitude a little later on the record.
For me Idles have always struggled in some of their slower and quieter moments and that's no different on TANGK. The album opens with IDEA 01 which is a gentle introduction with some touchy keys that are a nice touch. But the actual tune itself doesn't really do much for me. I'm even less interested in A Gospel and though the closing track Monolith has its moments I also wouldn't call it a highlight.
Even some of the harder-hitting cuts on the record failed to click with me. POP POP POP contains some of the funniest lyrical moments on the album but it feels more like laughing at the band than laughing with them. The song has a hook but I wouldn't blame you if you didn't even notice as the monotonous drum beat pounds away throughout much of the track. Jungle is one of the loudest moments on the album but it makes a mistake that Idles have so often avoided. The blitz of instrumentation here actually feels like it's too much and overpowers Joe's vocals. Moments like Joe calling out "save me" are clearly meant to be dramatic but are held back from their full potential but the instrumental completely smothers them.
TANGK is not the new and improved Idles I was hoping it might be nor is it the return to the sound and quality of their first two albums that I would have also expected. I don't want to feel like I'm pigeonholing the band, but they continue to explore outside their stylistic comfort zone and I'm just yet to see much evidence that they're capable of crafting great songs consistently while staying out of bounds. TANGK is a more cohesive record than its predecessor but is also much more of a mixed bag, something that leaves me even more uninterested in the direction of Idles than ever before, despite some spare highlights to be found. 5.5/10
For more Idles check out my reviews of Crawler and Ultra Mono
