Album Review: IDLES - 'TANGK'
They’re loud, they’re raucous and they want you to know their strongest opinions, but they’re not in-your-face pretentious. You’re left to find their music organically, wether it’s a festival lineup of a band you just happened upon in between watching the headliners, or a friend of a friend says “Hey, have you heard that band? They’re pretty good”. They may not be shoving their music down your throat, but once they’ve infiltrated your Spotify, they’re not a band that are easy to put on the back burner.
Teetering between tongue-in-cheek absurdity (“I’m Scum”), dark pasts (“Never Fight A Man With A Perm”), and laying bare heart-breaking personal circumstances (“June”), and covering all topics from toxic masculinity to xenophobia and loss, IDLES have never held back, and their latest project isn’t where they plan on starting to.
Sitting proudly amongst an impressive and expansive discography as their fifth (and hopefully not final) record, “TANGK” is another stirring and wildly frenetic offering from the Bristol outfit.
Speaking about the album, frontman Joe Talbot notes, "'TANGK'. I needed love. So I made it. I gave love out to the world and it feels like magic. This is our album of gratitude and power. All love songs. All is love.”
“TANGK”’s opening cut, “IDEA 01” propels into a soundscape of thudding, slow building drum beats that part to make way for trilling, lighter notes, that burst onto a scene of swirling electronics – the perfect demonstration of IDLES’ new, softer direction, in terms of narrative anyway.
On the flip side, however, “Gift Horse” is a turbulent and arduous journey through rolling percussion, insistent beats and tangled nonsensical staccato-esque lyrics (“can he run in a tutu / he looks a little long in the gold tooth”). An exemplified nod to their impressive soundscapes, this cut boasts lyrical brilliance at its absolute rock-finest. “POP POP POP” is a track that is anything but, there’s no colourful dreamy instrumentation to be found here, but instead insistent vocals and narratives of vulnerability atop drilling drums and piercing electronic sound effects.
Featuring the talents of New York rockers LCD Soundsystem, “Dancer” oozes closeness and demands that you hold tight to your nearest and dearest. Released as the first teaser for the album, “Dancer” holds the epitome of the bands new direction, moving away from darker subjects to embrace love, unbridled passion (“particles of punch drunk love”), and above all, fun.
Full of religious parallels and a moniker to suit, “Grace” holds its own through a swirling soundscape and stripped back drums that succinctly complement Talbot’s harmonic croonings. The twin to tracks such as “The Beachland Ballroom” and “Slow Savage”, “Grace” offers a break from rip-roaring high-octane punk to deliver a sweet and joyous take on anger. Paired with the earlier track “A Gospel”, you could almost be convinced Talbot had had a religious awakening that seeps into his song writing.
Moving swiftly back to the IDLES’ we’re more familiar with, the riotous “Hall & Oates”, peering through layered, rough instrumentation akin to that of Soft Play (formerly SLAVES), Talbot dotes on all things love and comfort (“it feels like Hall and Oates are playing in my heart”), in a tribute to family.
Closing number, “Monolith” is exactly what it says on the tin, a tall, thumping, all commanding chorus of instrumentation that succinctly rounds the record off. One short of a dozen, but not finding itself lacking in the slightest, “TANGK” shows IDLES aren’t planning on plateauing anytime soon, and more than live up to their title of being one of the best acts on the UK scene.
Words by Lana Williams
