Idles engage in the purest, most cathartic anger on ‘Mother’

Every new Idles song right now sounds vital. Every new Idles song sounds like a pure cry of fury stemming from something deep inside that you’ve been struggling to articulate and come to terms with. The gift of Idles is they can articulate it with a few simple lines and a violent crash of guitars, bass and drums. They bring it out of you, hold your face in front of it and scream, “fucking look at it.”

Whether it’s over politics, art or your own life, that unflinching self-reflection and subsequent catharsis is at the core of their upcoming debut album, ‘Brutalism’, which was written in the wake of the death of lead singer Joe Talbot’s mother. The band say new single ‘Mother’ is “an exploration of who she was and is,” with the ‘is’ seeming particularly important. Someone with as much passion and fire as Joe didn’t come from nowhere.

‘Mother’ is driven by brutal but intricate drumming and a classic hardcore sounding bassline, whilst Idles’ twin guitars become more and more distorted and twisted as the song builds. Joe delivers his vocals in a way that makes you think he probably had to be restrained in the booth during recording. You can almost imagine him clawing at the glass and fighting against chains as he spits refrains like “the best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich,” and the two word chorus; “mother fucker”.

Nothing really sounds like Idles right now, but most importantly, nothing at all feels anything like them.