Album Review: Ultra Mono by Idles

Sadly, Joe Talbot has to take a few moments on the group's latest album, Ultra Mono, to take aim at his detractors. With a couple of references to cliched lyrics and buffeting off those that have accused him of sloganeering, you have to wonder why there was any fuss in the first place. In working through his own issues, IDLES' leader Joe Talbot has provided some hard-edged positivity that anyone would do well to get behind.

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Few bands carry the weight of expectation quite as heavily as IDLES. A group whose success has far eclipsed even the dizziest daydreams of its members, they've come to be synonymous with a progressiveness we can all get behind - the destruction of toxic masculinity, the value of loving ourselves and each other across needless boundaries of race, class and gender. It's an excellent message to stand for, but a big mantle to carry - should they falter, there's a hell of a lot of people watching.

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On their third record in almost as many years, Idles are at their most anarchic, dialing up their comedic edge -- often including cringe-inducing, Police Academy-style sound effects -- and their manic energy. To call Ultra Mono terrible would be disingenuous, as it is still some of the most vital music being made; however, it does include the first notable misfires from a group who could seemingly do no wrong. Lyrical content aside, the band themselves are either over-committed, as with bassist Adam Devonshire's increasingly unhinged backing snarls, or underwhelming.

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Since they first came to prominence with their 2015 debut album 'Brutalism', Bristol-based post- punks IDLES have had their authenticity, sincerity and motives repeatedly called into question. With the release of 'UItra Mono' (their third studio LP), they find themselves in the firing line yet again. Thankfully, 'Ultra Mono' is IDLES at their combative, chest-beating best - backing down from nobody, and embracing their reputation as cliché-wielding, misty-eyed snowflakes by taking on toxic masculinity, crooked politicians and social injustices once more.

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Like it or not, IDLES may be the face of punk rock in 2020. The sneering British band has exploded in popularity since releasing two critically acclaimed albums just over a year apart: 2017's Brutalism and 2018's Joy as an Act of Resistance. They've been embraced for their intensity, their vulnerability, their bluntness and their inclusivity; for letting out their sadness, their rage and their joy and turning it into a movement.

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Brexit, billionaires, bigotry - it's grown harder and harder to look at the society unfurling around us and come away with any other assessment than that we're all fucking doomed. If you recognise that nihilism, you'll like IDLES . Thrust into the mainstream following the release of Brutalism (2017) and their sophomore album Joy As An Act Of Resistance (2018), IDLES provide a space for the listener to overcome the systems that constrain them, be they financial, social, racial, etc - all are welcome.

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While Idles have maintained an ascendent trajectory since their 2017 debut album Brutalism, they've also taken a fair bit of flack, perhaps unfairly: accused of virtue signalling, pretending to be more working class than they are, and not doing enough to really help the causes they claim to support. Their last album was called Joy As An Act of Resistance, but from some quarters they’ve been told that their acts of resistance need to be, well, more active. Ultra Mono is thus a concerted effort to tell both their fans and their critics, in no uncertain terms, what they stand for.

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At the onset of lockdown, as busy lives drained away only to be refilled with ennui and baking, Zadie Smith wrote this adage: "The people sometimes demand change. They almost never demand art. " Before the pandemic, society offered a tacit contract whereby artists, and few others, could essentially act like children: painting flowers, blowing into flutes, storyboarding plots where lurid men meet their comeuppance, yelling "A heathen! From Eton! On a bag of Michael Keaton!" into microphones--anything that might elicit joy or clarity in the general populace.

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The Lowdown: In a year that's seen the world burn physically, politically, and epidemiologically, getting into a debate about whether or not a rock band is phony feels as nostalgic as it does futile. However, this is an IDLES review, so that's exactly what we're going to do (at least for a minute). After the twin triumphs of 2017's Brutalism and 2018's Joy as an Act of Resistance vaulted the Bristol five-piece into the upper echelon of the British music world, the backlash arrived with bite that seemed to go beyond the music.

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