Idles – ‘Tangk’ review: the most open-hearted we’ve ever seen them

“I want to make people dance,” Idles’ Joe Talbot told NME last year of his vision for the Bristol noiseniks’ fifth album. “I want people to feel the love that I need in my life.”

In these times of division, derision and destruction, what’s wrong with a little peace, love and understanding? The image of Idles as barking and finger-wagging ‘punks’ for 6 Music dads has softened, too. The band themselves were all too-aware when they made the punchy and defiant ‘Ultra Mono’ – written as a “caricature” of themselves “intentionally to kill it”, as they put it. The expansive ‘Crawler’ followed – a bright new dawn after the storm.

But what to do after zero hour? Why not shake your tush? The kinetic lead single ‘Dancer’ (aptly and subtly assisted by tour buddies James Murphy and Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem) is the manifestation of what anyone who’s been to an Idles show has always known: theirs is a world of togetherness and movement. Likewise, ‘Gift Horse’ still rumbles and booms with that feral menace you love them for, but it’s got it’s collar-popped and “sinew exploding from chrome hooves”. ‘Hall & Oates’ ain’t no ‘I Can’t Go For That’ tribute and instead, jagged riffs compete with each other for an undeniable celebration.

Beyond that, ‘TANGK’ is an adventure into pastures new. Talbot is keen to put arm’s length at the material that exorcises his past traumas and battles with addiction and general frustration at the modern malaise. Now’s a time of appreciation and restraint. Opener ‘Idea 01’ is a glitchy hymn for “things you lost in the fire”; ‘Roy’ is a barroom waltz for the abandon of love (“I’m a smart man, but I’m dumb for you”); ‘A Gospel’, meanwhile, acts as a Morricone-esque séance. The album highlight comes with ‘Pop Pop Pop’ – an arresting trip-hop fever dream, leaving the past well behind: “Hold the clutch, hold the phone, watch me fly – hold the mirror to my mother’s cries”.

The record comes with three production credits: guitarist Mark Bowen (who cuts to the soul of the band), Kenny Beats (who brings out the colour and keeps things popping) and longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich (who does, well, that magical thing he always does). There’s full-bodied ‘In Rainbows’ vibes on ‘Jungle’, the ultimate ode to Talbot seeing the light: “Save me from me – I’m found, I’m found, I’m found”.

The gossamer purity of ‘Grace’ sees Talbot tenderly vow that there’s “No god, no king, I said, love is the ‘fing”. The motif and mantra is the driving force on ‘Tangk’, and the record ends not on a scream but on the peaceful and jazzy full stop of ‘Monolith’ as the frontman serenely concludes: “I found myself my own king, I took his crown, I took his rings”. Removing our fat-fingered monarch’s jewels isn’t as much a ‘fuck you’ to the establishment here as realising that without self-worth and a little gratitude, you’re nothing. Anger is an energy, but love is the answer, they pose.

Details

• Release date: February 16, 2024
• Record label: Partisan Records

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