The rise of IDLES has been one of such seemingly breakneck speed; it’s wild to think their debut, and following national recognition, occurred almost seven years ago. Despite some pointless chat around the outfit’s punk/class credentials, the band has thrived by building a real sense of community with their fanbase and evolving with each release. Emerging kicking and screaming about broken Britain, their song’s themes of mental health, toxic masculinity, and self-destruction have only grown increasingly more sophisticated with time. With 2021’s stellar ‘Crawler’ seeing the band embrace electronics, the boys have once more gone for a daring sonic change, this time with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich along for the ride.
On first listen, TANGK – pronounced ‘tank’ – is the band’s most melancholic and melodic album. Take a deeper dive, though, and you’ll quickly find it’s also their most hopeful. This is an album preoccupied with love, joy, and perseverance. While still letting rip as only he knows how, firebrand frontman Joe Talbot also showcases a new level of vulnerability on half the tracks, his sarcastic chants replaced with a fragile croon. It’s on these that the marriage of Godrich and guitarist/producer Mark Bowen really shines. The spectral textures on offer across TANGK are undoubtedly the work of Radiohead’s ‘sixth member,’ but there’s always a threat of collapse or volatile reaction.
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Throw in returning hip-hop producer Kenny Beats, and you get numbers like album highlight ‘POP POP POP’. Droning synths and menacingly simplistic drums create something danceable but dangerous, Talbot delivering his lyrics with disenfranchised nerve. For all their live prowess and pit-worthy choruses, IDLES, much like the lads who penned ‘OK Computer’, are angrily holding a mirror up to the sad state of the modern world. There’s similar street-level poetry to be mined, but while Thom Yorke often leans on a sense of self-loathing, ‘TANGK’ sees a band punching life into submission and wringing all the love and meaning from it.
Not that the band’s fifth album is an exercise in naval gazing. Oh no, there’s still plenty of fire and fun contained. Singles ‘Dancer’ and ‘Gift Horse’ – the former featuring LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy – easily get your fists in the air and hips shaking. Adam ‘Dev’ Devonshire’s bass, never a slouch of previous records, reaches new levels of utter bowel-shaking filth. All in all, IDLES have taken that initial spirit that caught our imaginations and has elevated it to impressive new heights.
In forty minutes, the band not only reminds listeners why they became scene heroes but also why they’re one of the UK’s most thrilling exports. For our money, it’s another home-run of a record.
8/10
Words: Sam Walker-Smart
DIG IT? DIG DEEPER: Thee Oh Sees, The Smile, Metz
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