That band we never miss because we love ‘em, IDLES (Joe, Adam, Bobo, Lee, and Jon), have announced their fourth studio album, CRAWLER (due out on November 12th) with a soul single that provides a great taste of their range. This meaningful song showcases the Bristol band’s musical depth in a way that might be missed by those who just think they’re a punk or post-something band. For fans like us who enjoyed all the emotion from Joe Talbot on Solomon Burke’s “Cry to Me” – that passionate cover that appeared on Joy As an Act of Resistance – the same vibe is a thrill in IDLES original “The Beachland Ballroom.” And hey, we’ve got to mention right away that more tickets were just released for both nights of their Terminal 5 run next week (October 15-16th), so don’t miss out on that action. If you’re somehow unconvinced, read about the badassery we witnessed the last time we danced all over T5 with IDLES in October 2019.
“The Beachland Ballroom” not only celebrates the Cleveland venue they’ve played in the states. As Joe Talbot just stated, “It’s a song about one of the worst moments in my life, which became one of the best changes in my life.” The brutally-honest lyrics hearken back to “A Hymn” from Ultra Mono – remember his feelings of “shame” even amid the victory, “we made it”? Thematically, there’s also a hint of Brutalism’s “1049 Gotho” in the way that “The Beachland Ballroom” bares all. “Soon as the rush went away / I need not look for a way / Damage, damage, damage / If you see me down on my knees / Please, do not think that I pray / Damage, damage, damage.” A dripping extreme closeup of Talbot becomes the whole video and forces you to focus on his deep timbre, as well as the catchy-yet-dark song’s cinematic impact.
Per the album bio, CRAWLER came to be when Talbot “watched a motorcyclist race past him on the highway at nearly 130 miles an hour. The rider was inches away from crashing into Talbot’s car. In that singular moment, with the fragility of life and death so blatantly on display, Talbot began to reflect on his own trajectory and chronicle the formative moments therein, both literally and metaphorically.” “I’ve been a car crash.” he said. “Being an addict is part and parcel of who I was for years and years. Watching that motorcyclist felt like the start of a new story – reflecting on addiction in a forgiving, empathetic and sympathetic way. Allowing yourself the room to breathe and forgive, but also taking responsibility for your actions.” Check out the tracklist for IDLES’ fourteen-song forthcoming LP below.
CRAWLER Tracklist
- MTT 420 RR
- The Wheel
- When the Lights Come On
- Car Crash
- The New Sensation
- Stockholm Syndrome
- The Beachland Ballroom
- Crawl!
- Meds
- Kelechi
- Progress
- Wizz
- King Snake
- The End
Talbot also shared, “This whole album, I tried to be more of a storyteller than I’ve ever been before, and more poetic, which I think is more honest, in an ironic way, than trying to be as blunt and down the line as possible.” Guitarist Mark ‘Bobo’ Bowen added, “I thought it was important to include a lot of the songs that deal directly with trauma and the immediate reactive responses to trauma in the first half. Then, you have the more head-on stuff later — the realization and the dealing with it. One of the big things about writing this album was that we wanted to experiment and progress and evolve in our songwriting. Every time we did so, we had to think, what would we do? A really important aspect of our identity as a band is humor, and not taking ourselves too seriously. Obviously, we deal with quite serious subject matter, but it is often done with a tongue firmly placed in cheek.” Talbot then revealed, “It was writing selfishly that helped make it possible. Reflecting. Telling my own story. Not trying to tell everyone else’s story. Not trying to fix the world — just talking about how I am fixing mine.”
Don’t forget to preorder CRAWLER here and grab your T5 tickets here. We sincerely look forward to jumping around with the moshy crowd that will gather around these legends in NYC next week.
Article: Olivia Isenhart
