Rooting For the Home Team
My IDLES fandom is at this point as ingrained in me as much as my dark hair, my love of sautéed mushrooms, and my obnoxious inability to ever see the forest of happiness for its trees of short term contentment. But what are they now, how have they changed over the past few years since Brutalism made them a household name inside the subcultures of indie, art-punk, and political/message rock? Have they even changed at all as they re-enter a world that has changed in some striking ways in just the past few months?
Their new single “Mr. Motivator” says yes…and no.
Still here in the overall sound is the bared-teeth, knuckle-breaking energy. The tune begins with the alarm tone of a quickly plucked guitar string, and even when that is the only sound present it is clear that it is leading to something. The progression doesn’t disappoint: frontman Joe Talbot’s first contribution is a larger-than-life “Wooo!” and the bass is appropriately thudding with all the subtlety of a pile driver. Drums explode and careen around the room, trying to box in the rest of the band but failing in all the right ways to do so. Talbot’s famous sneering vocal is as lacerating as ever.
Yet there are some notable differences. Lyrically, the track is all name dropping and metaphors, and before each chorus there is a winking smile at the camera (“How’d you like them cliches?”). Having fun with media figures isn’t a completely new thing for the band by any means. But building an entire song around it sort of is. Not only that, but the satire is startlingly specific at times. Instead of the slightly oblique way that IDLES made fun of wannabe strongmen in a song like “Never Fight A Man With A Perm” (lines like “you look like a walkin’ thyroid” and “even your haircut’s violent” help to bolster this case), in this song we have a line about Kathleen Hanna using “bear claws” and “grabbing Trump by the pussy.” There isn’t another way to read that, in terms of the general feeling it’s putting across. This word choice and deployment is pointed in ways that past lyrics haven’t always been, even when they’ve had basically the same opportunity and platform. It feels a bit like the lads are willfully putting a chip on their shoulders and daring the world to come for them, and that leveled up confidence is sexy.
Along with that, Talbot shows off singing chops that have progressed a little more in their tunefulness. Not quite the rather large leap they took between Brutalism and Joy as an Act of Resistance, but at the same time it represents a little bit of progress and perhaps a road sign toward what LP3 might end up sounding like when we’re finally able to experience it.
I may not be from Bristol, but for me IDLES feels like a home team. Does that make me impartial about them? Not really, no. Does that mean anyone should take guidance from my opinions to decide whether or not to visit their particular brand of cold-water, grey-sky post-punk with a message? Maybe not…but for whatever it’s worth I’ll be there on LP3’s street date, ready to have my mind blown by a band that’s changed a bit or to have my socks blown off by a band that is essentially the same. I have a feeling that IDLES will be chomping at the bit to bring their violent noise and non-violent themes to whoever is there to listen.
