Idlewild – Idlewild review

It seemed like an unlikely future for Idlewild when they burst onto the post-Britpop scene as the mid nineties became the late ones, but they’ve spent the last three decades since evolving with their audience. This doesn’t mean that any of the emotional heft they’ve became renowned for has dissipated, but the band’s later iteration is certainly more accessible than the earlier one, once colorfully described as like “The Pixies taking Placebo up the back alley for light relief’.

Their self titled tenth album was recorded between Edinburgh and the Island of Iona which singer Roddy Woomble now calls home. Their first outing since 2019’s Interview Music, it finds them in reflective mood, but conscious of not being stuck in either the past or even a rut of the present.

If this isn’t a precept that leads to revolution, then so be it. Idlewild instead spends it’s time ploughing a familiar route between the heart and the mind, with a mention of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood on (I Can’t Help) Back Then You Found Me, but toting hardscrabble alt rock on the likes of Wrote It Down and Make It Happen. Never less than cards on the table stuff, it’s the yearning Permanent Colours which impresses most, an eloquent key to their door for any of those who arrive here as newcomers.

You can read a full review here.