There's a momentum surrounding Idles that is swiftly gathering pace and it's been a long time coming. He and his band are on another toilet circuit of the UK, but this time things are a little different. Mother is the foundation for the rest of IDLES' career to date – sonically distinct, lyrically aware and defiant enough to claw their way right to the top.Idles frontman Joe Talbot is eyeballing the curiously-gathered onlookers inside the tiny top floor room of Wakefield's Unity Works. Tackling rape culture on the line ' Sexual violence doesn't start and end with rape/It starts in our books and behind our school gates', IDLES drew on social and political discourse to fuel their ire, dispelling the myth that an artist must be apolitical to achieve mainstream success. It's not hard to track that trajectory when listening to songs like Mother, with clever turns of phrase mixed in with righteous anger and social commentary. With a shriek of 'No surrender!' on album opener Heel/Heal, IDLES had announced themselves to the world with an album that laced addictive hooks with cyanide and cynicism while the band would eventually move on to brighter tones and outlooks, their first record had the bleakness of a band aware that nothing was going to change.Įxcept, change did come - perhaps not for wider society, but for the band's lot in life as they went from the underground to cult sensation and eventual conquering force in a heartbeat. IDLES weren't pulling any punches with this single, the vitriol poured out in their debut Brutalism given a very explicit target just two songs into the record. ' The best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich'.

Idles songkick