CRAWLER

The dark, introspective nature of Idles’ latest release may well disappoint those who love the band for their rabble-rousing, tongue-in-cheek headbangers. But for those who’ve been waiting some time for the beloved Bristolians to take a left turn with their sound, Crawler is an absolute thrill.

CRAWLER is a project about flaws, healing and reclamation. It’s a remarkable, haunted and resonate touchstone for rock and roll, a record unafraid of its own emotions and openness—full of stories worth returning to and untangling a hundred times over.

Idles are finding new directions home: the hallmark of a great band.

The latest record from IDLES sees them taking a brave first step outside their comfort zone.

There are occasional subtleties, as with the scratchy electronic layers on Progress, and something approaching conventional singing on the almost pretty The Beachland Ballroom. But the sound overall is pure battering ram.

The crepuscular and electro-flecked Crawler works almost as a scream-therapy confessional, Talbot laying bare his history of addiction and degradation as a token of solidarity to those broken by the pandemic.

Over 14 bruising tracks, there’s no sign of frontman Joe Talbot’s unambiguously right- on polemic, not much humour and little in the way of festival-ready shoutalongs. It also might be the band’s most satisfying collection of songs to date.

Post-punk has always been a genre that only vaguely fitted IDLES, used only because it was a convenient way to compare them to their contemporaries. In some ways, CRAWLER is the closest that the Bristol five-piece have come to the now-overused label, but the album is, at its core, unpredictable.

This might be a more reflective, experimental IDLES, but they remain a band filled equally with anger, humour and vitriol. And, whichever direction they take, it still sounds fantastic.

Long may IDLES challenge their own sonic personality, along with social norms and the notion of what it is to be strong but also what it is to be vulnerable. All is love.

The band’s signature punk rock sound underpins the album, but it’s on the stylistically divergent tracks that Idles flex a new skill. Crawler is ambitious in its scope, and it almost always pays off.

IDLES' fourth record in just as many years is their most ambitious, most introspective, and most powerful to date.

It has the potential to open the door to the Idles multiverse, where multiple versions of the band co-exist. Whilst it doesn't always stick the landing, the new spaces it does explore are well worth the journey.

The Bristol band's fourth album is a course correction, one that dials down the aggression in favour of reflection.