Idles - Crawler
Opening track MTT 420 RR is quite possibly the best song they’ve ever recorded. Slow, brooding, melodic, something you'd expect to find on a Nick Cave greatest hits collection....are you ready for the storm?
The Wheel is a scathing song about alcoholism, lead singer Joe Talbot pleading with his mother to put down the bottle. Specifically, Crawler tells of the singer’s 15-year struggle with substance abuse. Talbot was born in 1984: the son of an artist father and a mother who worked for the Inland Revenue. His parents split when he was a baby. He remembers, at the age of 10, crying on his knees, imploring his mother to stop drinking. He started using substances at the age of 12, after her non-fatal heart attack. The album is an open letter to those who are hurting, those who seek help and solace in anything they can find.
Lead single, The Beachland Ballroom, is a clear cry for help wrapped around the most wonderful Artic Monkeys riff, Tranquillity Base As An Act Of Resistance..if you will
They could hear me scream for miles,
The silence ringing for days,
The wind that turns the trees,
Made me sway, made me sway Made me sway
Ultimately the record is chaotic yet melodic, brutal yet beautiful. Idles have taking a huge stride forward, we can finally thank lockdown for something, because this record is up there with the greatest of the decade so far.
10/10
