IDLES much anticipated third studio album ‘Ultra Mono’ out this Friday

Bristol band IDLES are Joe Talbot (vocals), Mark Bowen (guitar), Lee Kiernan (guitar), Adam Devonshire (bass) and Jon Beavis (drums). Their debut album Brutalism, was released in 2017 to critical acclaim, and was followed by their second album Joy as an Act of Resistance in 2018 which debuted at no.5 in the UK charts upon its release breaking Rough Trade’s all-time record for most pre-orders and sales in a day. Their powerful and energetic live performances have earnt them a strong following, and they came to wider attention following their excellent performance on ‘Later with Jools Holland’. Their emotional performance at Glastonbury in 2019 on the Park Stage was another milestone in their development. Much attention has been given to the AF Gang fan club, for it’s approach, inclusivity and supportive outlook.

The awards and plaudits flooded in and Joy was announced as 6 Music's no.1 album of the year, and they won the coveted Ivor Novello award for Best Album, were nominated for the Mercury Prize and saw not one, but two extensive tours sell out worldwide. The touring around ‘Joy’ would eventually culminate in an instantly legendary headline performance at London’s Alexandra Palace. All 10,000 tickets to that show sold out in under 24 hours.

Brutalism was an excellent debut album, and as so many other bands before them have faced, IDLES had to produce something equally good in their sophomore release Joy as an Act of Resistence. Boy, did they deliver, with a number of standout tracks, including Never Fight a Man with a Perm, I'm Scum, Danny Nedelko, Great and Rottweiler.

If Joy was meant to detail the band’s manifesto, then the band’s highly anticipated third album – Ultra Mono - is the sound of IDLES heading into battle, battering ram in hand, for those tenets. Sonically constructed to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record (Kenny Beats even helped with programming on several tracks), the songs double down on the vitriolic sneer and blunt social commentary of their past work. Not far beneath the surface of their self-admitted sloganeering lies a deeply complex and brutally relevant album that chews up clichés and spits them out as high art for the masses. Active presence and self-acceptance also stand at the core of Ultra Mono with much of the song writing done on-the-spot in the recording booth, and the phrase “I am I” serving as a lyrical and spiritual mantra throughout.

Ultimately Ultra Mono is a celebration of community, one that IDLES have been striving to build upon since their start, something bigger than themselves. As their audience grows, new fans continue to come from a sense of not belonging, together creating a diverse congregation of people that are making each other belong.

So now we have their third offering Ultra Mono out this Friday. What can we expect ? Can it continue the excellent run or may this be the album to show the cracks in their armour? We’re about to find out…

The album opening is as intense as they come in War, dominated by the frantic drumming from Jon Beavis, and pounding basslines from Adam Devonshire to really set the scene for what’s to come. It blasts out of your speakers, frantic and visceral. As the title implies, it’s a kind of rallying cry, or a call to arms if you will, to stand up and be counted, to protect each other….. to be ready for what’s about to come next.

Next up we head into Grounds with it’s wonderfully simple but effective guitar introduction, a single note passed through a delay pedal with a decreasing octave delay…. So simple it’s genius, as is so much of the guitar work of Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan. Grounds has a distinctly confrontational feel too it “I smell the blood of a million sons. A million daughters from a hundred thousand guns, not taught by our teachers on our curriculum”. Incidentally it was released around the same time as the Black Lives Matters protests and although unintentional, it crosses over perfectly in the support of equality and the need for action. The track hits hard with their underlying message of the importance of the individual (lyrically communicated through the mantra ‘I am I’) and the power of collective unity / action ‘Do you hear that thunder? That’s the sound of strength in numbers.’

It takes a swipe at modern life and the attitude of many with the line ‘Not a single things has ever been mended, by you standing there and saying you’re offended’.

Mr Motivator hits us next continuing the theme of self-respect and importance of each individual.

‘Let’s seize the day, all hold hands, chase the pricks away. The single was accompanied with a brilliant fan made ‘exercise’ video many in workout gear. It has a fun vibe to it, despite its serious meaning. The bands humour shines through as well. With critics commenting on their use of clichés, Joe Talbot spits out a stream of them such as ‘Connor McGregor with a samurai sword on rollerblades’ and ‘like Delia Smith after ten chardonnay’s making me a nice cookie’ How do you like them clichés ?’. Nothing says stick that in your pipe and smoke it like a well crafted sarcastic cliché !

For me maybe the weakest track on the album, is Anxiety, and that’s not to say it’s bad in anyway. It kind of feels out of place on this album…. like an earlier IDLES track, that wouldn’t be out of place on their first release ‘Brutalism’.

As Kill Them With Kindness starts, I honestly thought I’d skipped onto a different band/album. With it’s soft delicate piano introduction courtesy of Jamie Cullum. A wonderful soothing point to pause a moment and reflect, from the anarchic pace of the rest of the album. However, it’s only a momentary pause as the track kicks off when Joe Talbot’s aggressive, intense vocals kick in. The vocal performance in this one is fantastic and despite his gritty style, Joe shows a great range. It feels like this one is a message to the haters out there, in the same sort of way that ‘I’m Scum’ was a swipe at the popular press, once again delivered in their brilliant quirky and humorous style.

The first side of the album ends with my favourite single Model Village. A powerful song set to a quirky undulating beat, about the darker side of modern life, set against the backdrop of a model village, highlighting the sexism, racism, xenophobic nationalistic tendencies and behaviours of ‘little Britains’. The track pulses out at you in staccato beats, almost marching out of the speakers. It works brilliantly, and again gets over it’s message in a quirky way. This one is going to be a very popular live track.

The B side of the album kicks off with Ne Touche Pas Moi a classic punk anthem of a track, featuring Miss Jehnny Beth in the chorus, her voice beautifully complimenting Joe Talbot’s. The guitar track in this is also excellent , and reminiscent of parts of ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance’ and again I’m sure will be popular live. Focusing on the rights of an individual over their own body with it’s chorus of ‘Ne Touche Pas Moi, this is your dance space’, followed by the chant of “Consent!”.

We head into Carcinogenic, an excellent strong IDLES track, highlighting the cancerous nature of modern western society and the way it’s run. The lyrics are incredible throughout. A delicate soft guitar intro breaks into a punchy and powerful drum track, with lyrics taking a swipe at the injustices in society with lines such as ‘over working, working nurses and teacher while you preach austerity is carcinogenic’ and ‘cramming people into high rises, while selling their welfare for low prices’. Alan Devonshires bass playing is again outstanding on this one. A simple message runs through it – Live life, as Joe says ‘You only die once, you’ll never come back you’re gone when your gone, so love what you can’.

Urgent, and powerful, it’s truly a beautiful track.

Reigns hits us hard next and adds a note of rage to the political undercurrent of the vocals ‘How does it feel to have blue blood coursing through your veins?’ highlighting the contractor nature of the values many people hold and their experiences in life. It hits hard and there is a real sense of anger in this one – It’s feels darker and more direct than IDLES usually are and I like that. This one stands out for me and is probably my favourite song on the album, the guitar playing from Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan is even more maniacal than usual in places and the drums pound relentlessly.

The lyrics of The Lover pull no punches and the track has a slower, but heavier feel to it, with deeper tones and a strong sense of intensity with its repeated chant near the end of ‘eat shit’. It leads on nicely to A Hymn which is simply beautiful. The pace is slow and mellow and dominated by the bass with guitars taking an excellent supporting role. Joe’s vocal performance compliments this brilliantly, as he muses melancholy on things such as insecurities and regret. ‘I want to be loved, everybody does’.

The video for A Hymn is so simple, as each band member takes a drive with a parent / grandparent, even just to the supermarket. But against the backdrop of the pandemic, it amplifies the sense of loss, lack of human contact and missed love. So simple and yet so powerful. It’s delicate, caring and kind of humbling. Quite an experience.

Finally what better way to end that to say ‘thank you’ or Danke. The album signs off the way it started, with power an intensity and a wall of noise. Loud vocals, pounding basslines, and the wonderful quirky guitar style of Bowen & Lee. This one reminded me of their amazing and anarchic performance on ‘Later with Jools Holland’ a track that can get lost in it’s own madness and go on and on. It feels the perfect end to the album.

So, does it deliver ? Well, the simple answer is YES. The band really feel as if they have come together and perfected their style. The album has a confidence to it, and a swagger. There’s no band quite like IDLES.

Is it perfect ? No. Will everyone like it ? No. Is it worth it ? Well, I think Joe himself would say something along the lines of; Like what you like because you like it and not because you’re told to like it. Enjoy it for what it is to you. Be happy. Be confident in yourself. Be you.

So in that spirit, it really doesn’t matter what I think, but for what it’s worth, and in answer to my opening question, there are no cracks appearing in the armour…. For me, this is an excellent album and well worth experiencing, even if you only do it once to find out for yourself.

IDLES continue to impress and deserving of a 9.5 from LiveWire Music.