IDLES – Ultra Mono
Genre: Post Punk
Score: 9/10
Given the British post punk band’s track record of post punk, punk, and post hardcore so far, I’m just expecting my blood to be pumping, my fist in the air, and my brain espousing the cathartic leftist rage it rightfully feels.Overall: This album is the most explosive 42 min long roller coaster I’ve heard this year, and easily the tightest track listing that Idles has written so far.
Play by Play:
1. War – The album kicks off with a bang. Frontman Joe Talbot is blunt and louder than a megaphone. The drumming is tight and relentless. Guitars sound like bomber planes directly overhead and I’m just rushing to take cover. The band creates a huge tension that reminds me of a classic QOTSA rager. Themes of war and destruction create a fear inducing tension that will continue throughout the course of the album.
2. Grounds – The driving one two beat sounds dark and filthy. Guitars sound like the alarm of a nuclear reactor going off and everyone is ordered to evacuate. The attitude of this song is so unapologetic, so galvanizing in its appeal to the masses that are fed up of a system that has consistently failed to appeal to their needs.
3. Mr Motivator - This song lives up to the title perfectly. The lyrics are satirically general (“I am I!”) and I love the message of motivation and going for your dreams. The band paints the vibe perfectly, like a racing gun went off and as the song progresses it’s an explosive race to the finish line. By the end of the song, I have my arms up chariots of fire style, just crossing the finish line as Joe goes “YOU CAN DOO IT!” Runners, take note.
4. Anxiety - This song is absolutely hilarious to me. This song is basically the answer to the boomer’s question “why are millennials so weak and sad nowadays? You have it easier now than we ever did.” As it progresses, the groove gets more intense, the drums pound louder and the guitar gets filthier. As the entire band is screaming their brains out in an anxious frenzy, I catch myself moshing to nothing and I subsequently start developing that satisfying post mosh headache.
5. Kill Them With Kindness – The pretty piano intro heals my head back to reality. Now we’re back to the barking and narration that keeps bringing me back. “If you want to beat the machine keep your teeth clean” is definitely the best advice a song has given to me this year. The beat is driving and the guitars are filthy. Joe sounds angry as shit while simultaneously telling the listener to kill the naysaysers with kindness, always keep the long game in mind, and not to take crap from anyone. A Classic UK Punk Sound rings thru this song
6. Model Village - Catchiest song on the album, easily. I love how the bands points fun at the typical “silent majority” that is either not familiar with or prone to turning a blind eye to the systematic problems that come from being a “model village” (the overprescribed population, the homophobia, the overcompensating insecure folk, etc) The infectious post punk instrumentation has me repeating this song constantly.
7. Ne Touche Pas Moi - This song kicks ass. I love the message of consent and respecting one’s own space. Joe screaming “CONSENT!” at the top of his lungs convinces me that he could go toe to toe with MC Ride in a screaming match any day. The album has thus far carried a momentum that few rock albums this year have consistently kept for as long as they have.
8. Carcinogenic – This song best exemplifies Idles’s political views better than any so far on the record. Damn, they sound so livid, and they’re only British. Say what you will about Boris Johnson and his administration, but at least the British have single payer healthcare. Self-identifying apolitical folk, take note how well Idles presents their messages in their music. You can tell that they as a band understand the urgency of the issues they talk about, and do a really great job showing you the listener exactly how they feel about it without sacrificing the quality of the music.
9. Reigns – This is probably the most Joy Division sounding ass song on the album. However, that’s not to say it’s a derivative song, because it’s not. The riff is brooding and massive, and the drums are relentless. The anger the band has towards those in positions of authority translates very clearly as the song progresses and the instrumentation grows more menacing. The climax’s instrumentation gets so intense that I’m actually getting physically winded listening to this.
10. The Lover - This song is their “fuck you” song to all of the haters that blasted Idles for their brash sound and strong opinions. I love how the drums loops pound through the roaring guitar riffs. Joe’s lyrics are snarky and very self aware of the criticism that Idles biggest detractors have historically lobbed towards them. The band sounds like they intend to take the higher road and declare themselves the Lover in this love hate relationship. It’s a proudly hippy hoppy track.
11. A Hymn – God, this cooldown was needed. As a single it confused me as a choice given how slow and brooding the song is. In the context of the album, the performance is absolutely harrowing, with Joe just bellowing “I want to be loved” in such a dejected and exhausted way. It offers a very sharp vulnerable contrast to the brash attitude just presented a track earlier. Had Ian Curtis lived to see his influence evolve over the past 40 years he would be shocked to see how far it went.
12. Danke – The closing track sounds like a general sonic reprise of everything prior to a Hymm, but filtered through a more positive lens of hopefulness and solidarity building. The mantra of “True Love will find you in the end” and “You will find out who was your friend” followed by the TIGHT performance of the band (only for it to just cut off for some inexplicable reason) reinforces this feeling of solidarity from a bunch of lads from the other side of the pond that are just as sick of this shit as I am.
Score: 9/10
Favorite Track in Bold
Just my opinion