A beautiful thing. note
"We built [Joy As An Act Of Resistance], and we built this tour, on love and compassion! Whatever you do tonight, if you're in this crowd, you look after each other! You! You! Respect each other! Show each other love, show each other how much you love live music, not- not aggression, but LOVE! And compassion! Comprend!? LET'S FUCKING GO!"
—Joe, during the Stop and Go portion of "Colossus", on the live album A Beautiful Thing.
IDLES is a British Punk Rock band formed in Bristol in 2009, consisting of frontman Joe Talbot, guitarists Mark "Bobo" Bowen and Lee Kiernan, bassist Adam "Dev" Devonshire, and drummer Jon Beavis. Their distinct musical blend of harsh guitar and stripped down bass is amplified by Talbot's intense, wailing lyrics about such topics as human compassion and traditional gender roles.
Album Discography:
- Brutalism (Studio, 2017)
- Joy as an Act of Resistance (Studio, 2018)
- A Beautiful Thing (Live at Le Bataclan) (Live, 2019)
- Ultra Mono (Studio, 2020)
- Crawler (Studio, 2021)
- TANGK (Studio, 2024)
Singles and Extended Plays
- Idles (EP, 2011)
- Welcome (EP, 2012)
- Meat (EP, 2015)
- Colossus (Single, 2018)
- Danny Nedelko (Single, 2018)
- Samaritans (Single, 2018)
- Great (Single, 2018)
- Mercedes Marxist (Single, 2019)
- I Dream Guillotine (Single, 2019)
- Colossus (Music/Tricky remix, 2019)
- Mother (Live at Le Bataclan) (Live single, 2019)
- Television (Live at Le Bataclan) (Live single, 2019)
- Mr. Motivator (Single, 2020)''
"I was troped in on the weekend…":
- Addiction Song: "Benzocaine" and "The Beachland Ballroom."
- Album Closure: The appropriately titled "The End" from Crawler ends a pretty downcast album with a mantra of "in spite of it all, life is beautiful".
- Album Title Drop: Averted through their entire output until Crawler, whose title is mentioned in the chorus of "Crawl!".
- All Drummers Are Animals: Somewhat averted. While Jon Beavis is quite animated behind the drumkit, he pales in comparison to Lee and especially Bobo.
- Ambiguously Bi: Joe shouts on "Samaritans:"I kissed a boy and I liked it!
- Arc Words: The word “unity” is repeated several times throughout Joy As An Act Of Resistance, mostly on "Danny Nedelko" and at the end of "Rottweiler".
- The phrase "Love is the fing" is repeated throughout TANGK.
- Audience Participation: When they’re playing "Exeter", there is a certainty that at least a dozen people will be featured on stage by the end of the song, with some even playing guitar (to varying degrees of success).
- Audience Participation Song: Several.
- The “Fear leads to panic…” mantra on "Danny Nedelko".
- The last chorus of "White Privilege" can be that as well.
- The chorus of "Mother", where Joe will alternate between the words "mother" and "fucker" while the audience sings the other part - and sometimes both.
- Black Comedy: From "White Privilege": “How many optimists does it take to change a lightbulb? None! The butler changes the lightbulb!”
- Cluster F-Bomb: "You're Joe Cal-fucking-zaghe!" from the bridge of "Mr. Motivator", the repeated "fuck you! I'm a lover!" from "The Lover", "CRAWL!". Meanwhile, "The End" is a cluster-goddamn bomb.
- Concept Album: Their studio albums can be thought of as this: Brutalism on death and anger, while most songs on Joy… are about hope and unity in difficult situations. Ultra Mono is both about Joe's personal healing and an exploration of the... touchy political and social climate the album was made in, while Crawler is more explicitly personal, being about Joe and his mothers' respective addictions, the struggle of sobriety, and Joe's near-death in a car crash.
- Cover Version: IDLES took Solomon Burke’s soul classic "Cry To Me" and remade it into a slow-moving, almost stoner rock track.
- They have also done this with Metallica's "The God That Failed" and Gang of Four's "Damaged Goods".
- Darker and Edgier: Their studio albums in respect to their older EP’s certainly qualify. As well, the studio albums zig-zag this thus far, though both Ultra Mono and Crawler are definitely darker than Joy.
- Driving Song: "Car Crash," although not in the usual way.
- Drugs Are Bad: "Benzocaine".
- To a certain extent, "Gram Rock" can also apply, as its subject matter is about “two coked-up people attending my (Joe’s) grandma’s funeral”, with absurd lines such as “Ten points to Gryffindor!” and “I got new shoes, ‘cause I mean business!”.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first two EP’s, Idles and Welcome, have little to none resemblance to their later output. They were straight-up indie rock with virtually none of the hardcore elements present, and Joe is also singing in a much cleaner tone rather than the Harsh Vocals he would become known for later.
- Epic Rocking: Averted, as none of their songs are passing the 6 minute mark.
- The only ones that come close are "Colossus" and "Rottweiler" (both of which, according to the band themselves, had been written explicitly to serve as intro and outro respectively to Joy As An Act Of Resistance).
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: "Colossus" has a decently long pause before the second half of the song kicks in.
- Grief Song: "June" is about Joe’s stillborn daughter, Agatha.
- And to a lesser extent, Brutalism is a Grief Album about Joe’s mother, whose death influenced much of the record.
- Harsh Vocals: Joe Talbot’s go-to vocal style.
- "I Hate" Song: "I'm Scum" is a subversion, being more of a "I am what they hate", embracing the epithets thrown towards progressives by people on the far-right.
- Iconic Outfit: Mark Bowen will almost always play onstage with his boxers on and nothing else, sometimes making an exception for televised apperances. He also has a fondness for rather nice dresses.
- Large Ham: Joe, especially on Ultra Mono. "Kill Them With Kindness" is a great example, from Joe barking like a dog, to then whatever the hell this line in the fourth verse is:"WA WA WA WOO-WOO-WOO", SAID THE FLOWER TO THE SUN!
- Bobo has his moments too, especially when handed a mic on-stage. The A Beautiful Thing live album features him being handed a mic at the start of "White Privilege" and he says... SOMETHING, causing Joe to take the mic away and say "
Give him a microphone for ONE fucking minute..."
- Bobo has his moments too, especially when handed a mic on-stage. The A Beautiful Thing live album features him being handed a mic at the start of "White Privilege" and he says... SOMETHING, causing Joe to take the mic away and say "
- Lighter and Softer: The difference between their early EP’s and Brutalism onwards is...striking: on their first EP Welcome, their sound resembles early 80’s U2 (just compare the into of Meydei
to that of U2's I Will Follow), and has absolutely no sign of the aggressiveness they have been famous for – the next EP Meat is still firmly Post-Punk, but much harder in tone and serves as a bridge of sorts between the sound of their debut and the balls-out fury of Brutalism.- Joy as an Act of Resistance, whilst just as aggressive as Brutalism, is lyrically much more positive and celebratory in nature compared to the bleakness of their debut.
- Crawler is definitely lighter than its predecessor in sound, with some electronic elements finding their way in.
- Limited Lyrics Song: "Heel/Heal" has it's only verse repeated throughout the song, plus a chorus of "I'm done!" and "What Fun!".
- Live Album: A Beautiful Thing (Live at Le Bataclan).
- The 5 year anniversary deluxe edition of Brutalism includes the entire secret set they played at Glastonbury in 2022. Fittingly, said setlist featured Brutalism front to back - and nothing else.
- Men Don't Cry: Defied in "Samaritans," which is about how overbearing expectations of masculinity causes men to destroy themselves.
- Mood Whiplash: "June", a slow and sombre track with heart-wrenching lyrics about a stillborn baby, is placed right in the middle on an album of fast, energetic tunes. According to Joe, this was completely intentional, to signify how tragic events can happen at any time without expectation.
- New Sound Album: For the relatively few people who were following them from the beginning, Brutalism was that in spades, as it bears little resemblance to their prior output.
- Crawler, whilst not a total departure from the blazing sound of their past three albums, is more varied, having a greater focus on atmosphere and a bit more genre hopping from the band, dipping into genres on both the lighter side note and the darker sidenote
- Non-Appearing Title: "The IDLES Chant", "Gram Rock" and "Stendhal Syndrome", among others.
- Only Sane Man: Outside of his striking beard, Adam Devonshire is notable for being the only stationary person on a band where everyone else (outside of the drummer of course) is regularly stagediving and/or sprinting excessively.
- Pep-Talk Song: "Mr. Motivator" is the very definition of this, with a chorus of "You can do it! Yes you can! Woo!"
- Precision F-Strike:
- The chorus of "Mother".
- "The Danny Nedelko Community, so fuck you!" from "Danny Nedelko". Though this is somewhat of a variation as it is spelled out rather than simply sung.
- "Mr. Motivator", while notable for its Cluster F-Bomb bridge, also has two examples of this with "Like Frida Kahlo painting "arm the poor" on your fuck-off wall" and "Like Kathleen Hanna with bear claws grabbing Donald Trump by the pussy".
- Punk Rock: Averted. While their output could be classified as punk, and many publications/promoters refer to them as such (with the promoters of Athens Rocks festival going as far as to label them “the saviors of Punk”) the band have publicly denounced this label, with Joe Talbot going as far as to proclaim on stage that “for the last time, we aren’t fucking punk!”.
- Sensory Abuse: The ending of "Rottweiler", especially on the live version (which features Joe doubling down on drums).
- Shout-Out:
- The chorus of "Model Village" includes a reference to Joe South's "Rose Garden (I Beg Your Pardon)".
I beg your pardon
I don't care about your rose garden- References a gender-swapped version of Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" on "Samaritans."
- Many in the latter half of "Colossus."
I'm like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, I put homophobes in coffins
I'm like Fred Astaire, I dance like I don't care
I'm like Ted DiBiase, I win no matter what it costs me
I'm like Evel Knievel, I break bones for my people - Siamese Twin Songs: An non-studio example, but on their live shows "Mother" will segue into "Faith In The City" more times than not.
- "Kelechi" is nothing more but a 30-second intro to "Progress".
- Stepford Suburbia: "Model Village" paints an unflattering picture of small towns in the UK as hotbeds of right-wing extremism and toxic masculinity.
- Step Up to the Microphone: Bobo will sometimes literally grab the microphone from Joe and sing acapella. Hilarity Ensues.
- Take That!: "Rottweiler" is about The Sun, a UK news outlet comparable to Fox News that Joe Talbot harbors much disdain for.
- The Something Song: "The IDLES Chant".
- Title-Only Chorus: "Great", "Mother" (partially), "Rottweiler"…too many to count.
"In spite of it all, life is beautiful."
