Abbey Road’s Studio 2 was an unruly cacophony on a weekend in late August. The British post-punk band Idles were livestreaming a show — their first performance in 2020 — and discovering they were out of practice. But the group’s outspoken frontman, Joe Talbot, was in prime form. “This is dedicated to all the key workers that kept our country afloat, thank you very much, N.H.S.,” he said, referring to Britain’s National Health Service, before the band tore into “Divide and Conquer”: “Long live the open minded, down with the Tory scum.”

Over their first two albums in 2017 and 2018, Idles combined a vitriolic sneer with blunt social commentary, writing blistering songs about inclusivity, gender inequality, depression and toxic masculinity. The Bristol quintet’s sound mixes the blunt force of 1980s hardcore with stop-start dynamics, and Talbot, its charismatic leader, sings, speaks and growls with a bludgeoning force that is as honest as it is exhilarating.

The band is often accused of sloganeering, filling its songs with rally chants (“Do you hear that thunder?/That’s the sound of strength in numbers”), and with “Ultra Mono,” its third album, out Friday, the band doubles down on mixing messages of self-empowerment with lyrics lambasting the corruption and rot in modern day Britain. Making this kind of challenging, confrontational music is an endangered art in the world of rock. It poses a question bands may be scared to ask: Is anyone really, truly listening?

“Our arena that Idles has created is about feeling like you’re part of something much bigger and more important than yourself. We can start our own revolution,” Talbot said in a Zoom interview from his father’s home in the south of Wales. (He’s currently searching for a new place for himself in Bristol, an hour away.) His brown eyes were soft but sad, and myriad tattoos poked out from a long-sleeve white Idles T-shirt.

Source: New York Times

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