Spectreview: IDLES – Ultra Mono

Released: September 25, 2020

Post-Punk
Hard Rock

-OLIVE-

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Wha-puh. That’s the sound of Joe Talbot tripping over his feet to capture a moment. The place that IDLES occupies right now, in the release of their second full-length, is the secret dream of almost every kid with a Jay Turser and a subscription to r/InstantKarma. Thanks to the ever-bubbling cauldron of Brithype and a dearth of overtly masculine bands that, I guess, need to be filled, IDLES have captured a part of the rock world. Not to their discredit: Joy as an Act of Resistance was just catchy enough and just witty enough – just – for the band to deserve the attention. Importantly, it provided a blueprint for young men to reconcile pride in their masculinity with their aspirant support for social inequities that very sense of masculinity largely contributes to.

Here’s the problem though: it’s not enough to be an obnoxious twat anymore, even if it’s wrapped in a knowing critique. Bloke behavior is hilariously out-of-fashion in a scene that’s finally making small, if meaningful, steps to rectify years of cultural elision. To pull that trick off, it’s gotta be earned. And Ultra Mono, unfortunately, doesn’t do nearly enough to earn it. It’s a fiercer, faster, arguably harder-hitting record than Joy, and that will resonate with listeners that prefer their social messaging beaten into them (or others) with brass knuckles. But it also posits that IDLES, indeed, are the Arcade Fire of post-punk: yearning to be populist, but landing on an unsophisticated bluntness.

Again, much of the problem lies on Talbot and his misplaced confidence as an anthem machine. The band as a whole writes and plays red-meat music, reveling in the simple pleasure of terse bass patterns and temple-pulsing noise blasts. Take everything else away, and there’s nothing arbitrarily wrong with that approach. There might be an originality problem on Ultra Mono compared to its predecessor – few, if any, of these tracks hits the memorability of a “Colossus” or a “Never Fight a Man With a Perm” – but their ability to attack post-punk in economic fashion can’t be overlooked. IDLES is a sensory experience, and Ultra Mono at the very least hits the senses.

Talbot’s lyrics, meanwhile, suffer from the same general problem found on Joy: they’re slogans, spoken loud enough to feel like they make sense. He makes good points, at least in his intentions: learn to care for yourself (“War”), accept your worst fears (“Anxiety”), reject the false idols of capitalism (“Carcinogenic”). These are ideas that have been espoused by post-punk acts since its birth, but impressionable youth without that history still need to hear them.

The problem lies in the execution. More often than not his approach trades specificity for sheer force, with a notable lock of with even compared to his efforts on Joy. “War’s” boneheaded onomatopoeia and chavvy chants could just as easily be about global conflict or some unspecified violence rather than self-care. “Carcinogenic” might land on a general critique of late-stage capitalism, but its ideas aren’t new or interesting enough. “Anxiety,” meanwhile, completely eradicates nuance in favor of a blithe, narrow narrative that transitions into lazy social commentary. For supposed anthems, the songs on Ultra Mono feels like half-measures: arguments as shallow and unsubstantiated as viral tweets, with an equivalent volume.

Ultra Mono is nowhere near a sinking ship for the band: it’s as loud and uncompromising as they intended with the same brand of defiant, socially-conscious messaging that hooked listeners two years ago. But if IDLES want to continue propping themselves up as champions of a new punk movement, it would behoove them to step back and look at what fighting fire with fire means in a world that’s sick of choking on smoke.

Recommended for lads, lads, lads, lads, lads.