REVIEW: Idlewild, Hope Is Important (Odeon/Food)
- Christina Apeles
The only competition in the British music press to fellow UK band Gomez for best newcomer, Idlewild is young and unruly, thus an inclination for punk rock antics, going mad on stage with the lead singer Roddy Woomble losing the same tooth on one tour. Curt and fraught tunes scattered between catchy, laggard pop, Hope Is Important is for the schizophrenic music enthusiastic that enjoys teetering between pop and punk. Idlewild packs 12 songs in just under 36 minutes, moving from one disposition to the other with such flair, in the release as a whole and within the songs themselves.
With angst-ridden punk to prankish pop, Idlewild conjures the likes of Sugar, the Pixies, Sonic Youth, and, on the lighter side, Aztec Camera with worthwhile lyrics, plenty of shrieks, and music that is infectious. Opening the release with Woomble's screams marking each musical break, "You've lost your way" is all reverb, mosh pit mayhem, as is "You don't have the heart," with heavy bass lines, soft vocals turning into screaming, and meter in overdrive.
But not all happens in under two minutes. "I'm a message" is an honest, almost heartfelt tune, that has the inspirational feel of Bob Mould's perfect pop songs with Sugar. And the Roddy Framesque song, "I'm happy to be here tonight" trades an electric for an acoustic, with harmonies taking center stage and romance in the air, "You and me talk freely tonight, this is my chaos..." showing they can do ballads with the best of them.
Confused and bitter sentiments imprint most of Hope Is Important, though with a bit of humor as well as lyrics like "You don't like holding hands, you don't play guitar" in "Paint nothing," ending with "I'm calling the art school...I'm in the art school" and "I laugh at my conversational skills, or lack of" in "When I argue I see shapes." Both are whimsical straightforward pop songs, have compelling tempos with each beat and riff just where you want them to be. Then they throw all that out the window ending the release with their longest track, "Low light," a song of endless changes in Woomble's pitch, screaming out the same two verses over and over again, relentless guitar playing, spanning five minutes, that heightens into a cacophonous, psychotic mesh of sound.
