Idles - Crawler.
It's as if a number of albums newly released in the last year reflect the notion that we live in an age that is an intermezzo between the certainties that have defined the world, life and culture in the past, and a future that will soon return us to some semblance of intelligible values. The pandemic has turned upside down the routine of touring, record release and the lives of bands and performers in general. And of course, it didn't just change the standards of the music industry, but of everyone. The Bristol post-punk formation Idles released an album full of confessions, despair and insights into the soul, which in its own way responds to the objective necessity to prepare the society for the path leading from uncertainty and confusion back to "normalcy". Crawler (11/2021) is the British-Irish rock band's fourth realized effort, following the previous Ultra Mono (9/2020), Joy as an Act of Resistance (8/2018) and the not-so-welcoming debut Brutalism (3/2017). The bar that Idles are aiming to surpass or at least maintain with this CD, however, is by no means low; the previous album took the number one spot in the UK. The three-quarters of an hour of music is divided into fourteen tracks, the standouts being Kelechi, which is merely a soundtrack, and Wizz, which is a punk mini-concentrate of thirty seconds. The opening MTT 420 RR, with its never-ending intro and sloppy whistling, evokes a rather gloomy atmosphere that more or less accompanies the whole album. We are drawn into images containing symbolic stories full of nihilism, psychological traumas and drug escapades. Singer Joe Talbot asks us right at the beginning if we are ready for the storm. September's single Beachland Ballroom has a leisurely pace and escalating tension in the vocals. Ninth in the order, Meds is livelier and has a pure punk feel, including stumbling breaks. The chorus combines the words heal and meditate. Highlights include the four-track Car Crash, the classic punk track The New Sensation and the eight-track Crawl!. The album's last track, the helpfully titled End, sparks the spark with a summation that despite all we've heard, life is beautiful. The whole album gives a very good, compact and balanced impression, and the Idles (Joe Talbot - vocals, Adam Devonshire - bass, Mark Bowen - guitar, John Beavis - drums, Lee Kirnan - backing guitar) confirm the style and quality they set on the previous album.