IDLES have announced the Nov. 12 Partisan Records release of CRAWLER, the U.K. group’s fourth album in as many years and the follow-up to their first No. 1, 2020’s Ultra Mono. The 14-track project was recorded at the famed Real World Studios in Bath during the COVID-19 pandemic and co-produced by Kenny Beats (Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs) and IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen. Pre-order CRAWLER HERE.
First single “The Beachland Ballroom,” named after the iconic Ohio venue, is an honest-to-goodness soul song featuring a gorgeous, gripping vocal performance from frontman Joe Talbot. It’s available to stream now and is accompanied by an official video directed by LOOSE.
Says Talbot of the track, “It’s the most important song on the album, really. There’s so many bands that go through the small rooms and dream of making it into the big rooms. Being able to write a soul tune like this made me go, fuck — we’re at a place where we’re actually allowed to go to these big rooms and be creative and not just go through the motions and really appreciate what we’ve got. The song is sort of an allegory of feeling lost and getting through it. It’s one that I really love singing.”
Adds Bowen, “I didn’t know Joe could sing like that. He’s been trying to write ‘Be My Baby’ since the very beginning, but he didn’t want to be the punk guy wearing the Motown clothes. He wanted it to feel natural, and this song is.”
On CRAWLER, the group brings to life vivid stories of trauma, addiction and recovery with its most soul-stirring music to date. There are, of course, numerous moments that will inspire absolute mayhem in a packed concert venue this fall, like the warped glam rock of “The Wheel,” the 30-second grindcore slap to the head of “Wizz” and the unhinged, pulverizing bass-and-drum groove of “The New Sensation.” But there are also fresh textures and experiments that push IDLES into thrilling new territory, like the alternate universe marching band anthem “Stockholm Syndrome” and “Progress,” a “mantra of realization” that soothes both body and mind in a way few IDLES songs ever have before.
The New York Times included IDLES’ new album in their Fall Music Preview saying, “The British band IDLES wrings new variations from the post-punk vocabulary of obstinacy, impact, dissonance, talk-singing and ratcheting-up tension on its fourth studio album. The band escalates from electronic Minimalism to flat-out stomp and roar; the vocalist, Joe Talbot, veers from bitter cynicism to dance-floor instructions to howls of “Damage! Damage! Damage!’”
