They could have done more with this than they did so it's a little disapppointing, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking up their next gigs. If you like punk, you'll like this.
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Nobody can say that post-punks IDLES lack energy. Brutalism kicks off, in fact, with someone being called a bastard and taunts of “Mary Berry’s got a job / So why haven’t you got a job?” Full of anger and rebellion, while there’s lots of it semi-directed at society it does just feel like anger for anger’s sake. The lyrics don’t really give us what the sound feels like it’s going to provide, and honestly it’s a little disappointing. They could have done so much more with it than the angry stream of consciousness we got.
Their lyrics are full of almost statements, but they never quite get there. On ‘Mother’ they sing how “the best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich” before launching into “motherfucker” shouts and after claims that “my mother worked 17 hours a week”. Maybe they never intended for the lyrics to get deeper than that, but for an album with titles like “White Privilege”, there’s a distinct lack of dealing with the issues they seem to hint at singing about. Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected an album full of criticisms of society, but what is punk if it isn’t that? It’s definitely going to get you in the mood for a bit of a mosh, but it won’t go much further than that. It all just feels a bit empty – though they can’t just spell it out for us, I suppose their aim is to raise the issues, get you thinking all while in the middle of a sweaty mosh pit.
That said, there hasn’t really been much like this in recent years. They do launch into some attacks on our current society with lots of anger and the ‘brutalism’ is definitely there. You want a punk band? Here’s a punk band. It’s like if you took Holden Caulfield and combined him with a drunken, live, Kurt Cobain, taught him a few hectic riffs and radicalised him. Add in the existentialism of Joy Division, a smattering of Rage Against The Machine and a modern day Sex Pistols, and you’re there.
After a bit of a weak start, the album really gets into itself with and after ‘Gotho’. With grunty lyrics but an underlying melody, it’s more like accessible punk…or as accessible as it can really be. They push the vocals out some more, add some new chords, while still keeping their sound. If listening to this whole album doesn’t make you want to see them live, I don’t know what will.
It’s definitely unlike anything we’ll probably end up getting this year, and if you want some straight punk you’ll find it in buckets here. While they’re definitely not for everyone, if you love punk you’ll be struck by how straight up talented and good IDLES are at what they do. And when all’s said and done, this album has given us the line “Mary Berry loves reggae”, so what more could you want?
Brutalism is out now via Balley Records. You can watch the official video below.